


Genealogy

by deanine



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Aerith is wise, Alternate Origins, Alternate Universe, Cloud is not who he thinks he is, Daddy Issues, Zack is a good friend, family fic, good bros
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 52,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26388283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanine/pseuds/deanine
Summary: Everyone has a father.  It’s just biology.  Cloud is no exception, but he isn’t looking for an absentee parent, not at this late date. His priorities are simple and ambitious, pass the exam to become SOLDIER.  With his friend Zack ready and willing to help, that goal might almost be attainable.Of course, when you’re least looking, the past can creep up and change everything.
Relationships: Zack Fair & Cloud Strife, Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough
Comments: 260
Kudos: 215
Collections: Strife and Mayhem





	1. Cold Days and Shrimps

**Author's Note:**

> The plan is for each chapter of this story to start in the past and then visit the present.

_Claudia knew who she was. Not especially girlish, she was sturdy and capable and not ugly, even if no one would ever go out of their way to call her pretty. Girls like her survived the long, cold Nibel winters that drug on for months past the last of the grain. Girls like her boiled their shoe leather and drank the vile solution to calm their hunger when they had to. Not that she would be sipping thin, brackish soup tonight. The bells on her father’s sled were just audible over the wind. He would have food, minks or maybe even an antelope. They sold on the furs, but the fatty meats would fill their bellies for weeks._

_Built like a bear with a red-tinged beard, her dad hadn’t just brought game from their traps. From under the uncured firs, he fished a stranger up into his arms and bundled him inside their simple home. “Be fast, girl. Warm some water. If he’s to live, we have to get him warm.” Claudia was scrambling for the pot and their water barrel before her father finished talking. Unprepared travelers got stranded from time to time and her father had brought lucky survivors home before. Once the water was warm but not hot, Claudia poured it into a set of shallow bowls. The stranger looked blue, frostbite turning his fingers and nose scary shades of blackish purple. Carefully, Claudia settled each of the man’s hands into the warm water. She repeated the process for his feet as soon as her father had removed the man’s boots._

_Her father frowned at her for a long moment. Until this winter, such duties would have fallen to her mother. Like her daughter, Lila had been sturdy as a stone until the fever last spring that killed her and both of her sons too. “Get the firs,” her dad said, uncomfortable but surrendering to expediency. He resolutely started peeling away the stranger’s sodden, quickly thawing clothing, leaving him naked and exposed until Claudia could get a set of furs over him. “Be a good girl, get him warm. I’ve got to tend the haul before wolves or a dragon catches wind of it and steals the lot.”_

_“I got him, da,” Claudia agreed. With professional dispassion, she continually changed the water as it cooled, doing her best to save the stranger’s fingers and toes. His nose might be a lost cause. A shame that was too, it was a nice nose in a nice face. If her father was built like a bear, the stranger was wiry and fine boned, more like a fox or even a bird._

_Hours later, her father stomped into the house, a blast of cold air at his back. He settled a frozen raccoon dog over the sink to thaw and sighed. “Not awake yet? How’s his color looking?”_

_“Fingers and toes are pinking up a bit. Nose looks bad,” Claudia reported dutifully. “Where’d you find him? Is he from Nibelheim?”_

_Her father grunted and shook his head. Nibelheim was a big town full of not terribly self-sufficient city folk according to her father, but true outsiders rarely had enough knowledge to find a trapper’s trail and get help from a mountain man like her dad. Most of the time the lucky survivors they saved were their neighbors from a few clicks south. “Found him in the pass, near enough to dead. His chocobo’s leg was broken. Had to put her down.”_

_Claudia crossed herself and made the sign to ward evil. As close as they lived to the edge of survival in the winter, her father would have been loathe to kill a chocobo and skinning or eating one was the worst of taboos. “I couldn’t leave her for the wolves. It was quick.”_

_“We’ll say extra prayers. You couldn’t leave her like that,” she agreed. Working steadily, changing the water bowls again, Claudia couldn’t help staring at the stranger. His drying hair had sprung up into feathery yellow spikes so reminiscent of a chocobo that she had to restrain herself from petting them. The stranger was entirely too pretty, a delicate kind of beautiful that Claudia had never experienced among the other mountain families._

_She was so busy cataloguing his lovely hair and the rest of him, that she didn’t realize right away that his eyes had blinked open. His blond brows drew together in confusion and Claudia tried to step away to her dad, but the man grabbed her arm. Confused bright blue eyes locked with hers. “Don’t leave me.”_

* * *

It wasn’t that Cloud didn’t like people. He just found them challenging to occupy space with most days. Growing up, he hadn’t started the fights with his peers but he hadn’t avoided them either. His prickly as a cactaur version of socialization hadn’t translated well into the barracks once he arrived at Midgar. Watching the other cadets pool resources and work together, Cloud had kept to himself, certain he could make it on his own. 

Failing the SOLDIER exam had been a rude awakening.

Realizing that maybe he needed help to reach his dream, hadn’t turned him into a social butterfly or solved the problem in any way. Cloud tried to train, to prepare for the looming exam, but he felt lost and unsure where he stood. It wasn’t like they gave him a report card last time. No explanations, no coaching, he received a letter that basically told him to try harder the next time or enjoy the infantry. 

Then Zack Fair happened. A trek up a mountain and a mission to Modeoheim had somehow turned into his first friendship in Shinra. He couldn’t explain why Zack seemed interested in him, why he bothered coaxing a friendship when Cloud was so bad at reciprocating his efforts, but weeks later the first class SOLDIER still made time to pester him on a semi-regular basis.

Standing awkwardly in line at the mess hall, Cloud selected soup and cheese and crackers, food that reminded him of home. Before he could slide along for the cashier to check his selections, someone gracefully snatched the tray of food. Since the lateral move from cadet to infantry, the childish jockeying had mostly died off, but it hadn’t stopped entirely. Cloud prepared to defend himself, but it wasn’t a peer with his food. Apparently his SOLDIER friend was back from the northern continent. Zack had inserted himself into line and was adding heaps of food to the tray. “Hey Spikey,” Zack said. “Don’t mind me, just adding some protein to the diet. You’re trying to build muscle. You need protein.”

“Hey, welcome back,” Cloud said. “Uh, Zack that’s more food than I could eat in three sittings,” 

“Well, I’m eating too here, man,” Zack clarified. “Do you like shellfish? What am I saying, who doesn’t like shellfish?”

Cloud considered pointing out that Zack was piling rations on the tray that were not free. He hadn’t even brought any money down. He always picked his food from the free options. Zack gave one of the servers a winning smile. “I know it’s not breakfast or even brunch, but I’m just back from a mission and I dreamt every night of the Shinra kitchen’s sausage rolls. There wouldn’t be any left over back there, Lucy, would there?”

The older woman smiled back indulgently and waved Zack on. “You go on and get started. I’ll bring a few out for you in a minute.”

The cashier also waved him on; SOLDIERs didn’t pay for food whether they ate exotic fish or oatmeal at their meals. “I think it’s against the rules for you to get food for both of us like that,” Cloud said, nervously. It wasn’t Zack that would be in trouble if a Shinra bean counter noticed the extra food or where it went.

“You worry too much. It’s a pound of shrimp. Shinra doesn’t care if you eat shrimp with me. Seriously though, do you like shrimp?” Zack asked with the fervency of a fanatic.

“Uh, we didn’t have them in the mountains and did you see the price up there? I’ve never tried them.” In short order Zack arranged a small pile of shrimp in front of him and waited to see Cloud’s verdict. He didn’t want to disappoint but their shiny black eyes were staring at him. “They sort of look like something that mutated in a mako pool. They have feelers.”

Zack looked indignant at Cloud’s verdict but snatched the plate back. “More for me.”

Cloud nabbed his soup and tucked in before Zack could try to tempt him with any more interesting fare. “So how was your mission?”

“Honestly? Boring,” Zack said. “I’m going to be local for the next few weeks. They need extra instructors with the SOLDIER exam coming up. You feeling ready?”

Cloud sighed. “I felt ready last time.”

They ate in silence for a bit, Zack literally demolishing all but a few items left on the tray. “So, about your test, I might have taken a little peek at your last exam to see where you needed to focus.” 

“Really? They let you do that?” Cloud felt his heart speed, finally he would know why he had come up short. “Was it terrible?”

“Don’t be discouraged, man, but, you technically didn’t fail. The height guideline is a recommendation, and you’re below it. They decided you didn’t do well enough to justify letting you in since you’re a…” Zack waved one of his crustaceans dramatically. “Shrimp, shorty, tiny, tiny human.”

Cloud had expected a critique of his materia mastery or his hand to hand combat. Maybe a discussion on how tricky the wording could be on the written exam. “That’s not funny. I can’t work on that, Zack.”

“Actually, you’re fifteen,” Zack said. He arranged a steak and some fresh vegetables onto one of the plates and set in front of Cloud. “Eat your protein. You might not be done growing. Besides that, even if you don’t grow another inch, this is just a challenge. If you blow them away on the exam, they can overlook the height thing.”

“Blow them away? Passing took everything I had. It’s not like I can train all day and night. I have infantry duties,” Cloud felt too sick to eat the food in front of him. It wasn’t like a steak and some green beans were going to make him grow half a foot in a matter of weeks.

“Oh Cloud, don’t be so negative. You can make personal progress on any mission. We just need to formulate a plan.” Zack pointed encouragingly at the food. “Eat the protein. It’s time to teach you one of my training philosophies that is going to help push you over the top.” Zack gave him a long, steady serious look as though he was preparing to share a great SOLDIER secret. “A man can do squats almost anywhere, and they are the perfect exercise.”


	2. Sanity

_Scrubbing the breakfast pot with far more attention than the task required, Claudia could practically feel the eyes of their house guest, Rain, boring into her. He had spent more time asleep than awake up until today when things changed. He had managed continuous consciousness from first light. Claudia didn’t hear the clinking of his spoon against the bowl. He probably wasn’t happy with the offering. The mink meat was oily and strong but it was better than starving while spring was still weeks away. Claudia spun around, ready to explain that to the apparently picky eater, but his bowl was empty, not even a morsel remaining. He smiled and she blushed, her mind instantly blank._

_His hands and feet were still too injured for him to move easily, so Claudia didn’t ask him to bring his dishes, fetching them for herself instead. “We’ve been out of grain. Our diet gets pretty limited about now while we’re waiting for the spring. Mr. Rain, I know it’s not the tastiest and we’ve served nothing but hash for days, but the seasonings make the game taste better, and the hash is a less chewy option.”_

_“Just Rain is fine, and I’ve got no complaints about the food,” he said. “If you father hadn’t fished me out of a snow drift, I’d be frozen solid right now. Will he be back today do you think?”_

_“Da has to run his routes. He’ll be back in a few days probably, if the weather behaves. He ran the route to the high mountain pass when he found you. This time he’s going to head down to Nibelheim, to try and barter us some fruit or grain. We all got a touch of scurvy two winters ago. Not fun.”_

_“He should have said something. I’ve got a little money. It might have helped. I owe your dad and you,” Rain said. “Thanks to you both, I’ve still got ten fingers and ten toes.”_

_Claudia smiled, “And I think your nose might actually make it too. It looks remarkably better.” She pulled a seat up to their guest’s spot on the couch. “Just, don’t offer my da money. You’ll upset him. We wouldn’t let anyone freeze. It’s a thing up here. You help when you can and if it’s you or one of yours the next time, your neighbors do the same.”_

_“It’s probably for the best I didn’t offer anything before he left then. I’m not a local so I can’t just pay it forward if the opportunity arises. What would your dad accept as repayment? I can’t just do nothing,” Rain said._

_“Well, do you have any useful skills, Mr. Rain?” Claudia asked, wincing at her inability to drop the Mister from his name. She sounded like such a little girl. “I mean there are always chores and things when you’re back on your feet?” Not that Claudia could quite see the slight man wielding an axe or stretching a skin for curing. Part of her imagined that such a pretty man had to be a fairy, slipped out from Underhill to test their hospitality. The name was part of it. Whoever heard of a real person named Rain? It was a perfect fairy name._

_“When I finish healing up, you’ll just have to set me a list. I may not look like it, but I’ve lived rough before. I even lived in the mountains but not on this continent.” Rain made no effort to hide the frustration he felt in his expression or tone. “Being experienced didn’t stop me from getting into trouble. I knew better than to ride a bird past her prime through those mountains in the winter. My chocobo, Roberta, had been with me for years and years. I wasn’t ready to retire her. My poor girl, your dad didn’t leave her like that to freeze or get taken by wolves?”_

_“Course not. If he had a way to haul her, he’d have rescued her too,” Claudia said. “If you don’t mind me asking, what were you doing all the way up here?”_

_“Honestly, I’m looking for a friend. We lost track of each other and I thought she might have headed this way. I had a feeling.” Rain sighed again, picking at the bandages on his hands. “You’ll think I sound ridiculous, but my feelings are right a lot of the time. Losing my friend, then losing Roberta, I believe the goddess is annoyed with me. She’s punishing me. I’ve had too much bad luck for any other explanation.”_

_“The goddess punishes her faithful? There is a church to the goddess in Nibelheim. I don’t know much about her religion. Mom prayed to Baldrin and Dad does a little sacrifice to Odin every spring,” Claudia said._

_“Norse gods? That’s a fun pantheon. Loki was always my favorite in that lot. He had the most interesting stories,” Rain said. “Claudia, do you know if your dad saved my saddlebags?”_

_“I’m sorry, but I don’t think so. Our motorized sled runs pretty close to capacity without an extra human on it. I doubt dad would have taken anything besides you. We can’t afford to leave game behind. Was there something important in there?” Claudia asked._

_“Just everything I own.” Rain covered his face with his hands. “Cursed. I’m officially cursed.”_

_Claudia had no trouble empathizing with Rain’s loss. She’d lost what felt like everything before. “My mom had this thing she’d do when me or my brothers would get upset about things, particularly in the winter. It can be so grim and it can make you crazy if you focus on it. She would have us list the things that were good and right in our lives. We might be hungry or cold or mad at one another. She could always find something to be happy about. It was annoying sometimes, but it helped too. For example, this winter I’ve been alone all the time and I’ve had to do all the work to keep the homestead going while Dad runs the trail routes. But we were only out of food for one short stretch and the winter is almost over and I have someone to keep me company for the last few maddening weeks before first thaw.”_

_She thought Rain was going to ignore her stupid game but he spoke up from behind his hands. “I’m alive and healing and warm. The goddess sent me gracious hosts that don’t even want payment for saving my life, my fingers, and my nose.” Rain shrugged. “Maybe I’m not completely cursed.”_

_Claudia tucked her hands under her arms for extra warmth and smiled in gentle encouragement. Rain smiled back, and her heart sped up. Gods he was pretty. Basking in the moment, Claudia let her imagination paint the scene in sparkling, simple romanticism that sturdy country girls would be crazy to indulge in. “So this friend that you’re looking for, tell me about her. If you want to, I mean. You don’t have to.”_

_”She’s family,” Rain said, quickly. “Lost cousin.”_

* * *

Of all the areas in the Shinra training facility, Zack spent the most time in the conditioning center. Angeal had told him to let his sword training double for conditioning ages ago, but Zack liked the simple camaraderie of having a squat competition or running laps with the thirds and seconds and cadets. He had made a lot friends on that running track. Lurking around, watching everyone else work, one of his favorite friends raised a hand in greeting at his approach.

“Kunsel, buddy, you’re supposed to run with us,” Zack said. 

“I did my running in the marshlands earlier,” Kunsel said, not yet looking up from his PHS. “There’s a dead spot right here from the rowing machine to the hydrotherapy pool, no cameras, no listening devices, a complete blank. I get a lot of work done here.”

“Right.” Zack tried not to think too hard on the fact that finding a spot with no listening devices or cameras required standing in the conditioning room in a very specific five foot square spot. “Are you done working yet? I’m heading up for breakfast.”

“Sure, I could eat.” Kunsel stowed his phone and let Zack lead the way forward. “How are you liking being an instructor? I heard you volunteered.”

“Eh, it’s okay. I wouldn’t have volunteered if I knew that Cloud was going to get shipped to Mideel with his regiment. The plan was to help the kid train. His exam is weeks away,” Zack groused. 

“Cloud? Wait is that the blond kid you had me get records on? The short guy?” Kunsel asked.

“That’s him.” Zack threw an arm around Kunsel’s shoulders. “I think he’s going to make it, and I’ll be his mentor.” Just like Angeal had been for him, went unsaid. 

“Did you read the records I sent you?” Kunsel asked. “I mean really read them.”

“Of course I read them.” Zack shot his friend a speculative look. “Wait, you don’t think he’s going to pass the test. We read the same record. None of his scores were technically failing. He’s not that short. Tell me what I missed.”

Kunsel sighed. “He might pass, but no, I don’t think he’ll ever be a SOLDIER. The problem is his psych evaluation, not his height either.”

“He’s not crazy,” Zack said, immediately offended. “I read the psych summary. Well I skimmed the first page. He passed the multiple choice test.”

“It’s not about crazy. It’s more complicated than that.” Kunsel’s eyes were unreadable as always behind his helmet but his lips drew into a hard flat line. “The silly multiple choice test that asks you if you ever tortured kittens, is not what I’m talking about either.”

“Explain it to me then,” Zack demanded.

“If you’d read the whole section, you’d know that Shinra plants turks in the recruiting classes and they test the candidates. They need to know who is looking for enhancements because they’re budding psychopaths and serial killers. There are a few in every group,” Kunsel explained. “While the turks take on a few nonviolent sociopaths every year, they don’t want anyone with antisocial personality of any kind going into SOLDIER. The enhancement process has a well documented tendency to increase mental instability if you’re already pathological.”

“Sounds right. There were a couple of disturbing guys in my cadet group. But Cloud isn’t a budding serial killer,” Zack said firmly. “Your Turk evaluator got it wrong if he said so.”

“No he doesn’t fit antisocial personality disorder, but he’s not a natural leader either and he’s a little too rigid in his morality for the examiners’ taste. Cloud went scorched earth on a couple of the more evil shits in his cohort.” Kunsel smiled at Zack’s confused expression.

“Wait, I would have heard about it if a cadet took out a few of his peers. That’s the kind of gossip that doesn’t stay contained in this building. What do you mean scorched earth?”

“I mean he systematically sabotaged them and made sure neither of them would meet the minimum standard to be SOLDIERs. It was subtle enough that no one realized who was behind their bad luck. Well, no one realized but Rhodes, the blue-haired turk that wrote the majority of your friend’s profile.” Kunsel frowned thoughtfully. “How did he phrase it? It was harsh. The cadet will make a reasonable employee, will do fine in the regular military ranks. He is not a candidate for the Turk initiative and a poor candidate for SOLDIER. That’s not the exact phrasing, but it’s the spirit of the conclusion.”

“That’s bullshit. If getting the evil members of your cadet cohort thrown out makes you a bad candidate for SOLDIER, why didn’t they hold it against me? I threatened to castrate four cadets in my class if they didn’t resign and get the hell out of Midgar.”

“I remember. Even as a cadet, you had the skills to make them worried you’d do it too.” Kunsel crossed his arms and seemed to come to a quick decision. “Honestly Zack, you didn’t score so great on your psychological profile as a cadet either, but where your friend barely scraped by with minimum standards in the other criteria and didn’t meet the height recommendation. You were the top of your class, best physical candidate in years and a natural leader. Add to that, Angeal Hewley’s support. The man threatened to veto their veto if they tried it.” 

“Wait you read my employee file? I suppose I’d be pretty hypocritical if that bothered me.” Zack frowned and stopped walking altogether. “I can’t believe Angeal had to pull strings for me. Shinra doesn’t want SOLDIERs that take the moral high ground and protect others? That makes no sense.”

“Doesn’t it though? Shinra wants a certain level of moral flexibility in their SOLDIERs. Surely you’ve noticed our employer isn’t the simple caricature of good will you read about in your recruitment pamphlet. If their SOLDIERs are too high-minded, what are they likely to do if they become disenchanted with their employer?” Kunsel shrugged. “A first class SOLDIER is a weapon of mass destruction. If one really decided to come at them, the results could be catastrophic.”

“Angeal was honorable. He wasn’t morally flexible and neither am I,” Zack said, indignant at the implication. “Can anyone say Angeal wasn’t a good SOLDIER? Are you saying I’m not?”

“You know how much I respect you, Zack and Angeal was a great SOLDIER. But you’re lying to yourself if you think he was some perfect paragon. What he asked of you in Modeoheim, that wasn’t honorable. It was ends-justify-the-means practical. Any turk would have been proud.” Kunsel stopped short of speculating aloud that Cloud’s SOLDIER exam and Zack’s grieving process for Angeal might have somehow become an entangled emotional mess for his friend. On some level, Zack probably already knew that he wasn’t being completely rational about the situation. “You did your best, for Angeal and for Cloud, but there’s nothing more to be done. Your friend is probably going to be a reasonably successful infantryman and go on to live a reasonably happy life. Most people who don’t make SOLDIER do. It’s not the end of the world.”

“You know what, you’re wrong, man. Cloud is going to be a SOLDIER. We need less moral flexibility in our ranks I think. Don’t you?” Zack asked.

“I’m not making the selections, so it doesn’t matter what I think,” Kunsel said. 

“You said, Angeal threatened to veto my veto. I’m a first class SOLDIER; I’ll veto Cloud’s veto if they try it. I was planning to mentor the little guy. This would just make it official.”

“I guess it might work, but do you think you hold enough sway with Shinra to really pull it off?” 

“Apparently you don’t think I do.” Zack spun around and half drug Kunsel back to the conditioning room. “New plan, lets get back to your dead zone and I’ll explain.” Zack didn’t continue until they were on the safe side of the hydrotherapy pool. “You hacked the kids results for me. Hack back in there and shift the psych profile’s conclusion section a bit, not to some glowing recommendation but something less emphatically negative.”

“That is a terrible idea,” Kunsel said, but he pulled out his PHS and started tapping away. “If we get caught there will be real trouble and your friend will probably bear a huge brunt of it.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen, to him or you for that matter. We get caught, I’ll take the heat. It’s my idea.”


	3. Love Lost and Found

_Winter had loosened its hold on the Nibel mountains. Ice and snow had melted in earnest and the world was painted wetly in sticky brown. The trees knew better than to trust this early thaw and green hadn’t yet emerged. Claudia did her chores, moving about the property, sloughing through the calf-deep mud. She didn’t have time to stop and watch Rain work, but every time she passed he was farther through the pile of firewood her father had set him to split, chopping like he had been doing it his whole life._

_“Claudia, you need to get cleaned up and get packed. We’re leaving in an hour. I want to be on the road before midday,” her da shouted._

_The mountain families had a spring meet up every year, and this year’s was particularly important for them. With mom and her brothers gone, Da needed help. He couldn’t afford to hire one of the other families’ sons, but if Claudia made a connection, got married this summer, all their problems would get easier. It was so ridiculously antiquated and grimly practical._

_It wasn’t that she hadn’t known what she needed to do for their survival. She was a logical girl and she had her beaus among the other families. Jean Phillips would have asked her to marry him last year if she hadn’t been fourteen. If he had survived the winter (never a guarantee), he would most likely ask her this spring first chance he had._

_Claudia listened to the efficient snick and snap of the firewood splitting and her heart ached with the thought of marrying anyone but the man swinging an axe in their front yard. It wasn’t that they’d exchanged any promises or declarations of love, but Claudia had invited Rain into her bed. They had passed the cold, quiet nights together, her first experiences with physical intimacy. He had been gentle and kind. He had worshipped her._

_“Do you hear me girl?” her da shouted._

_She had never so acutely felt the loss of her mother. She couldn’t confide in her father. He might take the axe from Rain and make grim use of it if he had any idea what the two of them had spent the last weeks doing. “I’m coming, Da. Give me a minute,” Claudia called._

_Hesitating for a long moment, Claudia tried to marshal her courage. She couldn’t be certain of Rain’s feelings and she needed to know now, before she was a hundred miles away being proposed to. Sweaty and literally caked in mud to her knees, Claudia sloughed over to Rain’s side and waited for him to acknowledge her, but he just kept splitting wood. “We’re leaving today. Da said you were heading to Nibelheim on foot.”_

_“That’s right. I should be able to catch a ride back to civilization from there. Did you want to say goodbye?” Rain asked, without actually looking at her. “I’ll be heading out today too.”_

_“Shouldn’t we talk before goodbye? What about us? Are we just over then?” Claudia asked, determined to get an answer, to leave things clear between them._

_Like a machine he kept splitting the damn wood, not even changing rhythm. “There’s no us, Claudia. We kept each other company. I was lonely. You said you were lonely. It didn’t mean anything. It was expedient. I thought you understood.”_

_“Oh.” He might have buried the axe in her chest and it would have hurt less. “What if I’m pregnant? We never used protection. It’s been six weeks since I had a period. I could be pregnant.”_

_Rain finally missed a beat, and the axe buried into the stump he was working on instead of sliding through the wood he meant to split. He looked at her, expression distant. “I know you’re young, and I’m a bastard for not staying out of your bed, but you’re not pregnant. It’s biologically impossible. I can’t have kids.”_

_“Oh, I guess that’s a good thing. I mean you didn’t make me any promises. We’re clear then,” Claudia said. Rain nodded at someone over her shoulder and Claudia knew her father must be coming._

_“Claudia, stop dawdling and get moving.” Her da took her by the elbow and steered her around. He smiled down at her, the lines around his eyes deepening, and she tried her best to look back normally._

_It was good she wasn’t a crier._

_Tears would have been hard to explain._

_For his part, Jacob Strife wasn’t oblivious to the unshed tears or the tension running between his tiny family and the stranger he brought home from a storm. There were certain biological truths that couldn’t be escaped when you locked a young adolescent girl in a small dwelling with a young relatively healthy man for weeks of isolation. Bonds formed. Sometimes those bonds were emotional, sometimes physical, and occasionally people really fell in love._

_Claudia, inexperienced near-child that she was had very nearly fallen in love if he had to guess, but their guest seemed far less attached._

_Once Claudia was back in the house and out of earshot, Jacob regarded his guest solemnly. “You’ll be leaving today, like we discussed?”_

_“Yes sir, I appreciate everything. The extra provisions will make it a lot easier to get down the mountain. Your family, you saved my life. Are there any other chores I can do before going?”_

_Jacob couldn’t quite bring himself to smile into the polite recitation. Rain appreciated everything? “Nah, you’ve done quite enough.” He bit back the words he wanted to say, that if the outsider had wanted to show respect and gratitude he could have stayed away from his little girl. Rain could have refrained from toying with her, bedding her and breaking her damn heart._

_No Claudia thought she’d hidden her affair, and Jacob wouldn’t acknowledge it overtly, not even for the chance to verbally or physically punish the annoying pretty boy who deserved to have his delicate little nose broken._

_Looking uncomfortable, Rain nodded and worked his axe out of the stump. “I’ll just finish here then.”_

_Rain was still methodically splitting wood when Claudia and her father loaded into their battered green all-terrain vehicle, and rolled away._

* * *

Hot springs and expansive, beautiful forests, Mideel was a popular vacation spot especially in the spring. The natural flora bloomed out in riotous colors and they held a month long festival of the lifestream. Shinra always sent extra security to manage the crowds. This year there had been a threat of violence from Avalanche, so Shinra had deployed an entire regiment.

While Cloud was a little annoyed to be on deployment so close to his next shot at the SOLDIER exam, he couldn’t deny Mideel was beautiful. Of course the barracks were mold-smelling and grey, like most onsite encampments. Packed ten men to a bunk room, Cloud nabbed a spot near the back and set out his study guide to do some reading. He couldn’t grow an inch by will, but he could ace the written portion of his exam with a little extra work. 

Once he had everything spread out, a literal nest of study guides, flash cards, and snacks, Cloud settled in to work. 

“You’re Cloud, right?” One of his bunk mates, Lewis, stood at the end of his bed wearing civvies. A wiry black man with a slickly shaved head, he managed to look effortlessly cool. “So, you’re on third shift with us three. Do you remember me from basic?”

Cloud nodded, unsure where the interaction was going. “I remember you, Edgar Lewis. You were really fast on the obstacle course. But I don’t know your friends.”

“This is Jeff and Warren. Guys this is Cloud, he’s okay, not real talkative, but he never started any trouble.” The other two men, a husky brunet and a tall blond in wire-rimmed glasses respectively nodded his way. “We’re going out to see what this festival is about. You want to come?”

It wasn’t the first time he’d been invited to join in socially since entering the infantry, but Cloud could never convince himself to go, to bridge the gap between himself and his peers. “I’m studying. SOLDIER exam is coming up.” 

Warren looked bored and nodded for Jeff to follow him, but Lewis didn’t leave. “Come on, man. I’ll help you study on shift if you bring your flash cards. Come out with us and relax a little. It will be good for you. We’ll be working together for the next three weeks. Prove you’re not some socially stunted jerk and have some fun.”

Normally that type of challenging request would rub him the wrong way and he’d bite back hard. Maybe it was the time he’d been spending with Zack and the first class SOLDIER’s effortless social grace was rubbing off, because Cloud let the implied insult roll off him. “Okay, I guess.”

“Excellent,” Lewis said. “Let’s go. Warren and Jeff won’t wait all night. Do you have any civvies to change in to?”

“Not really.” Cloud hadn’t invested in new clothes, sending literally every spare gil he earned home to his mother. 

“That’s unfortunate. Whatever, come on.” 

Following the three friends into a sea of festival goers, Cloud hovered at the edges of their group, not really feeling like part of them. Occasionally Lewis would throw him a bone, try to coax him into the conversation.

“Hey Cloud, you like chocobo racing?” Lewis asked, after the three friends had spent thirty minutes debating the importance of jockey skill vs chocobo quality. 

“Uh, sure,” Cloud said. He had thought of things to say from time to time during the friends’ conversation, but now that they were listening to him, his mind had gone blank. 

Warren rolled his eyes. “I’m ready to eat. This looks like a dango shop. Anyone dislike dango?”

“Dumplings are my jam. Sign me up,” Jeff enthused. 

“Carbs on carbs? Shouldn’t we find somewhere else for Jeff’s sake? I don’t think our uniforms come in a larger size than they issued him this year,” Lewis teased.

“I’m not fat, asshole. I’m big boned,” Jeff groused.

Like the rest of the night, Cloud followed along in their wake without saying a word, unable to find a way to interject into their familiar, friendly dialogue.

Lewis sat by him at the restaurant and made it a point to keep prodding him throughout the meal, little questions, invitations to interact and Cloud tried, he really did but when Jeff came back with a pair of local girls and directions to a dance club, he was just tired and ready to get back to the dormitory. 

“All right, Cloud, you don’t talk. Do you dance? You’re welcome to come with,” Lewis offered.

“I don’t dance,” Cloud said quickly. “Thanks though.”

“Dancing is just moving. We had basic together. I know you can move. Think of it as conditioning but more girls.” At Cloud’s determined head shake, Lewis sighed. “No one is going to twist your arm. You good to head back on your own?”

“Of course,” Cloud said, “Not a child.” 

Lewis gave Cloud a long look and finally nodded. “Okay. See you on shift.” 

Winding his way back through the crowded streets, Cloud wasn’t looking for another diversion. Lost in his thoughts, he wasn’t prepared for someone to grab his arm and spin him around. On autopilot he defended himself, punching his assailant in the chest. The surprised man went flying into a display of bright red and yellow orchids. “Crap,” Cloud muttered. The man was probably a street vendor that had been trying to sell him something. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve had worse,” the man said. He stood and brushed himself off. The man was dressed casually, but not really like a local with a knit hat pulled down over his ears and a faded red cotton shirt tucked into what had to be ancient jeans. Cloud opened his mouth to apologize properly but he stopped short at the man’s strange, enthralled expression. Even shorter than Cloud, and very slight, the man started talking rapidly. “After all these years, I can’t believe it. Whose kid are you? Is Lela still alive? Are you hers? I haven’t seen her for twenty springs. It would warm my heart to know she’s still with us. Did you and your mom feel Ifalna’s passing? I’ve never been a gifted listener but I could swear I felt her go. Do you know if it was her? Or, goddess, you aren’t Ifalna’s are you? You’re just barely old enough for that to be possible. Tell me about your mom. Tell me everything. You have no idea what a relief it is to not be alone.”

“Excuse me?” Cloud asked. “I don’t know you.”

“Who is your mother?” the man demanded. “Is she alive or are you alone too?”

“My ma is none of your business,” Cloud said, disturbed by the man’s desperate questions. “I think you’re confusing me with someone. I’m not even from Mideel.”

“I’m not confused. We are family,” the man said, as though Cloud was the one babbling nonsense. He cocked his head to the side. “Are you blind? You must be.” The man touched a hand to his chest, right over his heart. “Listen for it if you can’t see. We’re family. Hearing doesn’t always come easy for lightning, but try.”

“I see just fine. Have you been drinking, sir?” Cloud looked around, thinking someone might be looking for the crazy person they’d misplaced. “Is there someone you can call, someone to help you?” 

“Your mother told you about your heritage, surely. Did she ever mention Rain? The last of the lightning? I’m Rain.”

The coincidence of that one strange name brought Cloud up short. “You’re Rain?” Cloud frowned, refusing to entertain the idea that his deadbeat dad had just strolled up to him out of literally nowhere. Rain was an unusual name, but this guy was too young to be his wayward father. Wasn’t he? He fit the basic description of the man, but things like that didn’t happen. “Is this a game?” Cloud was at a loss to think of anyone who knew enough about his family history to set up such an elaborate prank. “You’re Rain? My ma mentioned a man named Rain. She met him when she was fifteen. They had a friendship. Her dad saved him from freezing one winter in the Nibel mountains.”

Cloud could see the moment Rain made the connection in his memory. The man jerked like he’d been slapped. “Your mother is not Claudia Strife. Not possible.”

He had been very careful not to mention his mother’s name, to see if the man could pull it from his memory. It was surreal. The man he’d wondered about his whole childhood had somehow found him. His mom had never outright disparaged the man who fathered him, but Cloud had drawn his own conclusions over the years. This bizarre conversation seemed to settle things finally. His dad was apparently a little insane. “It’s not that uncommon to question a kid’s paternity, but my mom’s identity, that I’m pretty damn sure of.” Unsure what to do or even feel, Cloud started walking away, toward the barracks. This might just be the weirdest night of his life.

Rain didn’t simply let him go. He grabbed him from behind again. “You don’t understand. You can’t be Claudia’s because that would make you mine.”

Cloud couldn’t help a bitter laugh. “I’m impossible, got it. I’ll try to keep that in mind while I keep on existing,” he said, shaking the man’s grip loose. “It’s been real interesting, but I’m past needing a dad, so you can continue with whatever substance-induced delusion you’re experiencing. I’ll keep on like we never met. Deal?”

The man didn’t respond but he didn’t stop following Cloud. He trailed him right up to the barracks. “You need to go away,” Cloud ordered. “They won’t let you through those doors. Go. Away.”

Rain smiled faintly, reaching a hand out as though he’d like to touch Cloud’s face, but he dropped his hand and stayed back. “The planet wanted this. She made this happen, made you. Now she’s brought us back together. You should listen, see if she’ll tell you why. I’ll listen too.” Cloud turned to disappear behind the barrack’s outer entrance, and Rain called again. “Wait, tell me your name. Please?”

Pausing with only a moment’s indecision, Cloud looked back. “I don’t think so.”


	4. Downhill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I realize the canon birthday for Cloud falls in August, for the continuity of this fic, he’s a January baby.
> 
> Also, this is the last flashback that belongs to Claudia. Her perspective will give way to a new point of view next chapter.

_It wasn’t a complete surprise to Claudia when Rain’s claims of infertility proved to be less than true. Her monthly cycle never resumed and her belly began to gently swell. By the time her babe made his first soft kicks, she had known he was growing in there, certain as women sometimes are about such things._

_Her father’s reaction when she sat him down and told him everything was a surprise. He hadn’t raged or even raised his voice. He had just held her hand and nodded. “You’ll have to tell your young man. Best not to surprise him. If he can’t understand how such things happen, you’ll have to find a new beau.”_

_“I know we’re struggling, da. I know a husband would help the situation so much, but I already told Jean no when he asked me. Marrying to fill a hole, I just can’t do it. I’d rather be alone,” Claudia said, quietly._

_Da squeezed her hand fractionally tighter. “Okay then. We made it through this winter. We’ll make it through the next and the next. And when my grandbaby is a little older and can help, things will get a bit easier. You don’t have to marry if you don’t want, my girl. We’ll be fine.”_

_“Thank you, da, for understanding.” Claudia had cried then, and her da held her in his strong arms, the rough calluses on his hands scratching at her comfortingly as he petted her and cooed for her not to cry now._

_At the evening meal, her da announced to the families that he had a grandchild on the way, and that his girl had decided not to do any more courting this year all things considered. There was gossip, whispers and insinuations. But the other pregnant women invited her to their knitting circle and the Kingston sisters taught her how to make booties._

_Things were fine, just like her da promised. They were even good for long stretches._

_Back home, Claudia worked harder than she ever had. The spring and summer, always important months for canning and foraging and gardening, were doubly important this year. She would be heavily pregnant in the deepest months of winter. They couldn’t afford to run out of food, not for even a day. Every berry canned and bean dried, made it more likely her baby would be born safely._

_All the love she’d felt for Rain hadn’t vanished with his abandonment. Claudia went from loving her fairy-man to loving his child almost seamlessly, and she had never felt more protective of anything in her life._

_Things stopped being fine in January._

_Her da was overdue by more than two weeks, likely caught by weather, and her little one had decided to arrive a bit early. The other mountain women had talked her through how childbirth would be, what she should do if she was alone when the time came. She had listened to their instructions even though her da assured her she would have her babe in Nibelheim with the doctor. He would bring her down to spend the last month of her pregnancy in town._

_Da was late, the babe was early, and Claudia tried desperately to remember everything the women had told her._

_Crouching on her bed, in a nest of towels, the love of her life came into the world screaming and bloody with a head full of blond hair already springing up into rebellious little spikes. Claudia lay next to him, exhausted and proud. She had planned to name him for her oldest brother, Fredrick, but it wasn’t a Fredrick that she was holding. He was too much his father to not have a fairy name. “You look like a Cloud to me.”_

_Claudia did the work she had to, cutting the cord and washing her babe in warm water until his little wrinkled face was clean. So tired that her legs trembled as she walked from the sink to the bed, Claudia was just glad that the worst was behind them. Her Cloud was born safely. It was going to be fine._

_Her da never got to meet his grandson._

_An avalanche took him before little Cloud ever drew his first breath. Of course Claudia wouldn’t know that for months. She waited three more weeks until in desperation, she bundled her child into a double nest of furs and packed the essential supplies she would need to escape down the mountain. On skis, she could make Nibelheim in three days. It would be dangerous for her and Cloud, but if her father never returned, they’d just starve in their comfortable home._

_Claudia wrote a letter for her da, still hopeful that he would come in a few more days. Part of her was terrified that she was making the wrong choice, but supplies were too low. Waiting longer was its own choice and Claudia had always preferred action to idleness._

_With her child strapped safely to her chest, she skied out into the white hills._

* * *

If Cloud thought he was done with Rain the night he refused to give the man his name, he was proven wrong very quickly. Across the street from the barracks a green public bench had seemingly become the man’s home. It was eerie how he seemed to know exactly which infantryman he was looking for. In full gear, Cloud wouldn’t have expected his mother to be able to pick him out of formation. 

Every time he came and went, Rain was there. He waved or nodded, always some silent acknowledgement. Cloud didn’t respond but it was too much to hope that the other infantrymen wouldn’t notice. The most gregarious of their shift, Lewis spoke up first. “Cloud man, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’ve got a stalker. He even styled his hair like yours.”

“I‘ve noticed,” Cloud said, not acknowledging Rain’s wave as they walked past. “Just ignore him.”

“Okay, will do,” Lewis said. “But you know him?”

“Not really, he’s estranged family. We ran into each other Sunday night,” Cloud offered. “I told him to go away. He’s being an ass and not going anywhere. Apparently he’s a little obsessive.”

“A little? Family can be shit,” Lewis commiserated. “You want me and the guys to move him along? He’s loitered there long enough that he could probably be arrested for vagrancy.”

Cloud sighed. “No, let me handle it after shift.”

Mercifully, the other infantrymen didn’t try to help him after their shift, letting him handle his wayward family in private. Cloud took a seat next to Rain, not bothering to remove his helmet. “I told you to go away. You parking here and waving at me, it’s affecting my work. People are talking. What will it take to make you go?”

“I was hoping we could start over. Spotting you in the festival took me by surprise. I’ve been looking for family for so long, I got excited. It occurred to me that a lot of what I said might have seemed strange or even cruel. If I scared you, I’m sorry,” Rain said. 

“You’re sorry that you scared me, but you thought sitting out here stalking me would calm the situation down?” Cloud asked.

“I don’t have your name or number or even an email address. You obviously don’t live on Nibel mountain anymore,” Rain said. “A bit of stalking seemed my best recourse.”

Cloud pulled off his helmet, so they could talk face to face. Without the hat Rain had been wearing on Sunday obscuring his face, it was impossible to deny the strong resemblance between them. Rain’s hair was far more golden, like a summer squash, where Cloud’s blond was nearly white. Their features while not identical were carved by the same hand, easily the features of a father and son. Faced with this calmer, more conciliatory madman, Cloud had a hard time holding onto his anger and annoyance. If Rain was mentally ill, could he just leave this person (paternity aside) to his own devices? “Mr. Rain, do you have other family or friends here? You aren’t homeless are you? I mean, I haven’t seen you leave this bench in days?” Cloud asked. “Do you need help?”

Rain laughed, a gentle smooth sound. “It’s been years since anyone called me Mr. Rain. Claudia called me Mr. Rain before we were friends, you know. But you don’t need to worry about me. I’m not crazy. I’m not homeless.” Rain rested his hands on his knees and stared hard at the ground. “Can I know your name? I’ll leave for a few days if you can see your way to letting me know that little bit about you. Don’t expect me to stay gone for more than a day or two until I have a PHS number or at least an email.” 

A few nights ago, Cloud had felt righteously indignant when he withheld his name. Today, he just felt an odd knot of pity for the quietly desperate man. “Cloud Strife.”

The smile that split Rain’s face wasn’t manic today. It was pleased, maybe even proud. “The Goddess had her hand on your mother when she named you. That’s perfect.” 

“I don’t know about perfect. It caused me no end of trouble on the schoolyard. I’d have probably been better off named Fred after my dead uncle like ma planned. She didn’t think I looked much like a Fred as a baby. Can’t imagine what made me look particularly Cloud-like. Every newborn I’ve ever seen looked like a gnome,” Cloud said, actually sharing a smile with the odd madman that might really be his father. 

“Humanity struggles with things that are different. It’s a truth of the species.” Rain’s smile faded. “I’m sorry for not being there. It isn’t how it should have been. You shouldn’t have been alone.”

Not really sure how to respond to that, Cloud stood awkwardly. “I’ve got to check in.”

“Of course you do. You’re a military man. It’s very nice to meet you properly, Cloud.” Rain offered his hand to shake and and once their hands were together he tugged him in for a hug, without giving Cloud a chance to reject him. “I’ll see you soon.” He pushed a piece of creased paper into Cloud’s hand. “My email, if you want to reach me. I don’t have a PHS or a computer, but there are cafes. I’ll check it every day.”

Cloud didn’t fight the hug from Rain and he accepted the slip of paper without resistance. Walking away, he felt less relieved to have cleared the bench than he expected. Rain was a complicated distraction that Cloud didn’t need at this moment in his life. He should be studying and training. But he felt more than a little disappointed to have chased the man away so easily. Maybe he was the crazy one?

He signed in at the dormitory’s log and instead of heading to his bunk, Cloud slipped into the corridor’s broom closet for a little privacy. Taking out his crappy, standard issue PHS, Cloud did some quick calculation on the time zones and made a hopeful call. His mom didn’t have a PHS, but she worked most mornings at the only restaurant in Nibelheim, and they had a landline. “Hello, Mr. Franklin? It’s Cloud. No sir, I’m fine, healthy. Yes sir, I was hoping my mom might be working and maybe able to take a break? I can hold.”

“Mom? No, I’m fine. I promise. I wouldn’t lie about that. Are you okay?” Cloud listened to his mother catalogue her minor health issues and the quick run down of death and births and marriages Nibelheim had experienced since her last letter. Just listening to her talk through the mundane news of home was soothing. Once she had wound down and started asking him questions again, Cloud had mostly decided how to explain the strange situation he’d found himself in and maybe get some advice on how to handle it. “Ma, I met a man named Rain. I think he’s your Rain, my dad.”


	5. Que Sera Sera

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so we’re going to be spending some time in the past with Rain now. My knowledge base on canon Cetra culture is FAR from encyclopedic. Taking the scraps I know, I’m building my own version of the Cetra social structure and various biological quirks. 
> 
> It’s AU as all heck, I know. 
> 
> PS: If you aren’t asking yourself exactly how old Rain really is after reading this chapter, I didn’t do it right.

_Bright blond spiked hair framed a slightly chubby child’s face. Concealed in the bushes, he watched a small knot of other children playing peacefully, building a tower out of twigs and flowers and grass. The oldest girl would hum a soft tune from time to time and the branches would grow together, lacing tighter so that the tower remained steady even as it grew taller. Cradling an arsenal of soft, over-ripe plums in his shirttail, the boy chose his moment and raced out of the bushes. He lobbed the soft fruit at the tower, not hard enough to really topple it and he roared. “I’m a dragon!”_

_Instead of standing their ground and defending against their new, pretend foe, all the children ran away except the oldest. “Rain, you could have just asked to play our game. Why did you have to scare them?”_

_“Building towers is boring. I wanted to play dragons,” Rain explained, letting the old bruised fruits drop to the ground. “No one ever wants to play dragons.”_

_The older girl sighed. “I’m sorry. How about we play dragons after dinner? I bet dad would play too.”_

_“Okay Eaddy,” Rain said. His big sister took his hand and led him to the orchard. Together they collected a pile of ripe plums for their mom and took the gravel path home. Their house grew out of the hillside, a more deliberate and sturdy growth than the tower the children in the woods had been growing but apparently built with similar magic. Abruptly, Eaddy stopped him from rounding the corner to their front yard. An angry voice just carried where they waited._

_“You need to control that little monster. He attacked the children, threw things at them. If you ask me, Lightning should be sent to their own kind at birth instead of being raised with normal children.”_

_Their mother’s voice followed, firm and calm. “I’ll thank you not to speak of my child so harshly. No one got hurt. I’m sure he was just trying to play.”_

_Eaddy didn’t let him keep listening. She tugged him back around so they could sneak in through the sun room. “I’m normal,” Rain said. He helped his sister rinse the fruit they’d collected in the kitchen and didn’t fight when she popped a plum in his pouting mouth._

_“Oh little brother, of course you’re not normal. You’re better than normal. You’re special.” Eaddy carefully sorted the fruit by ripeness, guiding her little brother through helping. “Everyone we know is a member of the water family or the earth family or the wind family.” Eaddy purposefully left a family out knowing it was her brother’s favorite._

_“Don’t forget fire!” Rain brandished a plum like it was a mastered materia capable of shooting flames across the room._

_“That’s right, Lise, is from fire. How could I forget? None of those people are very well suited to fighting, not even the members of the fire family, though they sometimes have to try.”_

_“Lightning can fight,” Rain said, shyly._

_“They can. They are brave and strong. They’re heroes.” Eaddy ruffled her little brother’s hair. “Lightning can’t be normal because normal people can’t be heroes and fight dragons. They have to be extra special.”_

_“I’ll be the best Lightning when I grow up,” Rain said, proudly. “I won’t ever let a dragon eat you, Eaddy.”_

_“I know you won’t little brother.”_

_Whether his stealth attack with overripe plums was the instigation that moved things forward or if he had just gotten old enough to be called away, Rain could never be sure. A few short weeks after his failed attempt to play dragons, a man came._

_His red hair seemed to grow straight up in complete defiance of gravity. Instead of the soft simple clothes Rain was familiar with, he wore leathers with shinny patches of actual metal armor. Rain felt an immediate connection, certain that he had met another Cetra like him, a Lightning._

_His mother seemed far less excited to see their visitor. “He’s a child. You’re early, Ged. Come back in a few years.”_

_“You’ve known since he was born that he wasn’t yours to keep. Why don’t we ask Rain if he’s ready? If he says no, I’ll leave him for another summer,” Ged said._

_“Rain, tell the nice man that you’re fine and don’t want to go anywhere,” his mom said, her tone even and absolutely commanding._

_In a million years he never would have dreamed of defying his mother especially when she used that tone, but he did. He loved his family, but he yearned for this man, Ged. Like a magnet to iron, Rain crossed the room to stand at his side. He looked at his feet instead of meeting his mom’s gaze, certain that she would be very angry with him._

_“Say goodbye to your mother,” Ged commanded._

_When he looked up, he immediately felt terrible, not because his mom was angry. Tears streaked down her face and Rain knew that he had hurt her. “I’m sorry, mom. I love you.”_

_She knelt in front of him and ran a hand through his own blond version of gravity defying spikes. “I know you’re going to be brave. You’re going to thrive. I just wanted a little more time with my boy. Your dad and sister will be sad that you left while they were away.” She hugged him to her, soft and warm, the smell of lilacs in her hair._

_“You’ll tell dad and Eaddy that I love them? Tell them I’ll be back when I know how to be a good Lightning,” Rain said, suddenly worried that Eaddy would think he had abandoned her. He had promised to protect her._

_“I’ll tell them, love. Be good, Rain, and be safe. You will always have a home here, wherever else you go.”_

* * *

The day of the SOLDIER exam arrived without any real fanfare. Zack reported to his VR station early and spent his time waiting for things to start by scanning the young nervous faces of the candidates. He knew a lot of those kids and was rooting for a fair few of them. Cloud wasn’t right in front of him, but he should have arrived by shuttle with the other candidates from his current duty station. 

Entering the VR session with his first prospect, Zack hated the rules that prohibited him from even wishing the nervous fellow luck. 

To the backdrop of a pale bluish sky, a tight formation of one hundred virtual reality bugaboos sprang to life, breaking off into random directions, leaving the lone SOLDIER candidate to chase them down. Never unsheathing his blade, Zack was only there to observe, not fight. The rubric for this simulation was simple. They were graded against a time limit, damage taken, and reasonableness of strategy employed.

The kid was doing pretty well. Since they weren’t warned about what they would face, some luck was involved, but he had picked a good materia combination. Magnify and wind were working in his favor and he had the good sense to start casting before the formation had completely dispersed. Now he just had to race around and hunt the stragglers. Zack wasn’t allowed to tell the examinees how they’d done, but he smiled at the kid anyway when the last virtual monster had been slain. 

In less than ten minutes, the simulation was reset and a new candidate was trying his luck. Zack winced at the kid’s complete miscalculation. He hadn’t picked any offensive materia and was trying to chase the bugaboos down with his sword, one at a time. It was a disaster and Zack called the test thirty minutes in as an automatic fail due to time limit. 

Several hours and more than fifty simulations later, when his final candidate had come and gone, Zack could officially say that if he never saw another simulated swarm of bugaboos, it would be too soon. Three other simulations were running with their own proctors, so it wasn’t completely surprising that Cloud wasn’t among the dozens of hopefuls Zack oversaw during his long, boring day.

The candidates on deployment like Cloud were running a tight schedule. They’d been shuttled in for testing and were scheduled to be shuttled straight back to work without an evening in Midgar to recover. 

Zack had sent Cloud a quick good luck text before things got going. Expecting an acknowledgement, if not an indication of how things had gone from his future protégé, Zack found his messages empty, well empty of responses from Cloud anyway. 

Knowing Spike, he was probably feeling negative about his performance and didn’t want to discuss it. If the kid were spending the night in Midgar, Zack would make it a point to check on him in person. As that wasn’t an option, Zack decided that his twelve hours watching prospective SOLDIERs basically swat bugs had earned him a little rest and relaxation. 

In his text messages, Aerith had sent him a picture, a close up of a red flower, some type of lily by her own description. He was used to her occasionally waxing prosaic about her blooms. It was spring and she was a florist; flower pictures were to be expected. 

**Zack:** Pretty! So, does this mean  
you’re too busy for a visit?

 **Aerith:** Never too busy for a visit.  
Bring your gardening gloves. I’ll  
put you to work!

 **Zack:** Bad idea. I have congenital  
black thumbs. It’s why I had to  
leave Gongaga. The farmers  
chased me out.

 **Aerith:** I’ll find something for you  
to do. 

A string of happy emojis followed that included no less than three rainbows and a unicorn or two. Zack proposed a time, Aerith confirmed a place and their date was set. Scrolling through his other messages Zack found an odd one from Kunsel.

 **Kunsel:** Operation littlest chocobo  
may be compromised.

The phrase was too worrying for Zack to even smile at the unique euphemism Kunsel had come up with for their corporate espionage on Cloud’s behalf.

 **Zack:** Seriously? Are you in your  
office?

 **Kunsel:** There now. No one is running  
laps at all since it was exam day, but  
the hydrotherapy pool is overflowing  
with soon-to-be-drunk cadets. Are you  
coming?

**Zack:** Be there in five. 

On the way to the conditioning floor, Zack tried to plan how to take all the blame for their actions on Cloud’s record. He’d never forgive himself if Kunsel or Cloud were punished for his stupid plan. 

Leaning against the wall just down from the rowdy, celebrating cadets, Kunsel didn’t actually have his PHS out. He nodded to Zack and patted the wall for him to come close so they could talk quietly. “Your friend is in trouble. He didn’t take the exam today. He didn’t even fly in from Mideel. I might have decided to have a peek at his scores ahead of the final evaluations and found the situation.” 

“Shit,” Zack said. “They found the edit in his file and didn’t even let him take the test. This is my fault. I’ll tell Lazard. Your name won’t come up, I promise.” 

“Hold on. I can’t tell that anyone noticed our subtle little edit.” Kunsel pulled his PHS out of his pocket, unlocked it and handed it to Zack with an alert on the screen. “The kid’s AWOL. He’s been absent without leave for going on six days. There’s an investigation open, but he’s a fifteen year old infantryman. No one is really looking for him very hard if the file is anything to go by.” 

Zack stared down at the simple stark alert with a confused expression. “Cloud wouldn’t desert. He wouldn’t.” 

“Mideel is a big place and there is a massive festival going on. AWOL can cover a lot of possibilities,” Kunsel said grimly. “The only reason Shinra sent a regiment was on threat of violence from Avalanche. I can think of a dozen possibilities for this AWOL, most of which aren’t very happy for your friend.” 

Zack handed back Kunsel’s PHS and switched to his own handheld device, tapping determinedly through Shinra web portals. 

“What are you going to do?” Kunsel asked. 

“What do you think? I’m a taking a vacation. I hear Mideel has a lovely festival this time of year.” 


	6. Friendship

_If Rain’s sister had painted his status as a Lightning in simple positive fairytales about heroes and dragons, the reality was a lot different—running until his legs were numb, studying until his brain couldn’t calculate another math, casting materia until his mana had gone to literally nothing, day after day. It could be mistaken for torture. As hard and painful and impossible as it seemed some days, Rain didn’t hate it._

_Back home he was the odd one out. His hair pointed the wrong direction. He didn’t play right or think right according to the other Cetra. There were only two other Lightning children studying with him, but he had felt closer to them at first meeting than he’d managed with anyone outside his immediate family ever._

_Ollio was the oldest, with brown spiky hair and warm brown eyes. He had greeted Rain with a light cuff and shove that would have made any other Cetra child cry. When the shock wore off, Rain pushed him back lightly and out of nowhere they were wrestling. There was no malice or aggression, just playful physical interaction, a fight between new friends. No amount of talking would have helped Rain relax and understand how different things were going to be, but their fight simplified it._

_They were family, fashioned from the same pattern, designed to see the world in similar shades and slants. Rain loved his big brother before he even knew his name._

_The youngest arrived a few weeks after Rain. His head was shaved bald, and his eyes were a bright shade of green. He wore finely woven clothes dyed a subtle, pale lavender. “I’m Lor,” he said. With a gesture at his bald head he added, “Mom tried to hide me.”_

_Instinctively knowing that Lor wouldn’t respond well to a wrestling welcome. Ollio bowed properly and wordlessly made sure Rain understood that he should do the same. “Hiding you was silly. Ged knew the second you were born. He wasn’t going to forget you,” Ollio said, once they’d finished introductions._

_“My mom, doesn’t often get told no. Everyone pretended not to know what I was because she wanted them to,” Lor explained. “Where do we sleep? Do we have our own rooms?”_

_“No, just one room with extra beds. We knew you were coming when the new bed grew in overnight,” Rain said. “Do you want to see it? It’s a nice room.”_

_Lor didn’t seem terribly impressed by his new home but he took a seat on the bed. “So have you had to kill things yet? I think I’m going to be good at killing things. I’ve dreamed about it.”_

_Being a hero and fighting dragons had never translated to killing things in Rain’s head, but he supposed that they would maybe have to kill bad things to protect the other Cetra. “Not yet?”_

_“Have you killed anything?” Ollio asked, a suspicious frown on his face._

_“Of course not,” Lor said dismissively. “Just curious if I was terribly far behind.”_

_“We run a lot and we study a lot. Ollio is the best with materia and he’ll help you get caught up,”Rain explained. “Ged said we could ask the goddess for our weapons after you got here and then we can learn to spar.”_

_“I’m going to use a sword,” Lor said, with absolute certainty, “a curved blade with a golden guard. I dreamed it.”_

_“Don’t be so sure. I once dreamed that I was a blueberry pie. Your dream doesn’t mean you’re going to pull a sword,” Ollio said, firmly. “Be open to what the goddess sends you.”_

_When Ged led them out to claim their weapons, Rain was determined to do as Ollio had advised and be open to the goddess’ will. The planet would send him the weapon that was meant for him. At Ged’s instruction they removed their shoes and followed him out onto a giant mound of intertwined tree roots that fed a thick grove of seemingly impenetrable trees. “Does anyone recognize this tree?” Ged asked. “Lor?”_

_“Viento, the travel tree. It’s roots go all over the world,” he said. “My mom, she tends the travel paths. Most people can’t hear Viento well enough to do what she does.”_

_“Very good, but the tree has another name. Ollio?”_

_“Hungrig, the eating tree?” Ollio said uncertainly. “Should we be up here? Hungrig eats people.”_

_“Don’t be afraid,” Ged said. “She only eats people she didn’t invite to visit and you are all her welcome guests. Take a moment and touch her. Get to know her.”_

_Rain stretched his toes, letting them hug the wood grain. Crouching down, he twined his fingers into the roots and even rested his forehead against their tortuously turning tendrils. The other Lightning, his newly minted family, faded from his perception and all he could hear was the wind breathing through the trees. Then they were breathing together._

_Ollio and Lor were still crouching and listening when Rain rose, a long silver spear in his hand. Ged smiled at him and gestured for his silence. Rain had to bite his tongue, he was so excited to talk about what he had seen and heard. The tree might be Viento and Hungrig to some, but she had a special name too, one just for them._

_Eventually his brothers stood, their own weapons in hand. A curved sword for Lor and a bow and arrow for Ollio._

_“Amie, our goddess tree, blessed you. What a lovely tool you’ve each been granted,” Ged said. “Let’s honor her gift by learning to use them.”_

* * *

By no means would anyone ever mistake Zack Fair for a turk. He investigated like a SOLDIER, straight ahead, full force. On arrival in Mideel he started at the Shinra base with the commanding officer. It hadn’t taken a whole lot of effort to get in to see the man, even without an appointment. The gunnery sergeant playing secretary seemed positively star struck at the sight of him.

The base’s CO, Captain Peters, was far more composed. “Fair, is it? Son, we’re not in the same chain of command. There is no need for you to check in on your vacation. Just go have fun. Try not to get in trouble with the local authorities.”

“You’re right, sir. Thing is, I have a very specific activity planned for this vacation. You have an AWOL infantryman, Cloud Strife. He’s a friend of mine. I’d like to assist with whatever investigation you’ve got going into his disappearance.” Zack took a seat without it being offered and smiled calmly. 

The captain’s lips pressed into a hard line. “The investigation has already been handled. A fifteen year old kid deserts, we generally let them go without too much fuss as long as they don’t steal anything too valuable on their way out the door.”

“I see. One problem with that kind gesture, Cloud isn’t a deserter. I told you, he’s a friend of mine. I know him personally. Something bad may have happened to him, sir. You’re telling me that you hadn’t even considered that possibility?” Zack wasn’t smiling now. “Were you just too lazy to bother looking into the situation, sir?” Tagging a sentence with the customary military honorific had never sounded less respectful.

If Zack weren’t a SOLDIER he wound never have heard Captain Peters’ heart rate increase, the only apparent sign that his accusation had elicited any emotion. “I have twenty years of experience. Trust me. The kid ran. I’ve seen it a million times.”

“Got it. You’ve made up your mind. I assume you don’t mind if I look into it a little further?” Zack asked, angry beyond words that Cloud’s commander had just assumed the worst of him and hadn’t bothered to properly look for him. 

“If you feel so strongly that this particular young man deserves a more intensive investigation, I won’t hinder you. If you find him and you want him prosecuted for the desertion, do bring him back,” Captain Peters said. He opened his office door and gestured for Zack to go already. “Gunney, give this SOLDIER any information he requests on our open investigation for that latest deserter, Strife.”

Zack couldn’t bring himself to thank the man for his perfunctory permission. Instead he nodded at the dismissal and tried not to despair that Shinra had put such a careless man in charge of anything, much less an entire base of more than a thousand men. The gunnery sergeant seemed quite eager to help and that was at least something. “So, to be honest I’ve never been part of an investigation like this. In SOLDIER for the most part, they point out the monsters and we hit them with swords. I’ll take anything you’ve got for me,” Zack asked with his most winning smile.

“Well, sir, I’d recommend going to talk with the MP that did the required investigation. He already interviewed everyone Strife knew on base. The full report isn’t uploaded yet because it has to stay open for at least another seven days. They’ll upload and close in one act in a week. You don’t want me to go through the bureaucratic rules that makes that the easiest thing for them.” The sergeant pulled out a slip of paper and wrote a list of contact information down. “Daniels isn’t a bad MP. I’m sure he was thorough.”

Not thorough enough apparently, Zack refrained from saying. “This is a big help.”

The base’s CO called ahead before Zack had a chance to contact Daniels, and the MP refused to have an actual conversation. He handed over a copy of his investigation with a terse word of advice. “Look, your friend was having some kind of family crisis. His bunk mates overheard enough to know he was stressing out about it and that it involved a family member in town, some cousin or something. Kid in the military who has family in trouble, they sometimes don’t think things through and they desert. It’s the most likely reason your friend went AWOL. There are a hundred other possibilities, yes, but we’re not likely to ever get to the bottom of it without expending more resources than we’re allowed to allocate. I do hope you find him and that he’s fine.”

“You’re the expert on deserters. Don’t let me keep you or anything,” Zack said, sarcastically. They might all be experts on what most people did and why, but Cloud was a friend and that made Zack an expert on him. He wouldn’t desert. 

Probably. 

Almost despite himself, Zack felt his first real doubt. Maybe Cloud would desert if a family member had enough need? Hell, if Zack’s mother needed him and he had to choose between helping her and deserting, Zack would desert and take the punishments that came later. 

Zack forwarded a copy of the case file to Kunsel. Then he settled into his hotel room to read the document for himself. It was the worst form of torture, sitting and reading and taking no action, but it was the right place to start. A few pages in, Zack ended up reading and pacing, then reading aloud and pacing. After two hours he was reading aloud, pacing and peppering squats in to try and burn some energy and keep his focus.

Once he’d read the last of the document, he just wanted to call Kunsel and get his feelings on the case, but realistically his friend probably hadn’t even had a chance to open the files. He had plenty of obligations that didn’t involve Zack’s random escapades. No, Zack needed to make some decisions himself and decide the next step.

If Cloud’s family crisis was the cause of his disappearance, finding said family might mean finding Cloud himself. None of the witnesses had a name for this mystery cousin, and the kid’s personnel file only listed a mom that inconveniently owned no PHS. Claudia Strife might as well be on the moon, for all the use she was on Nibel mountain. He could write the woman a letter. “Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me about any cousins your son might have in Mideel? He’s AWOL, a presumed deserter, but for all we know he’s dead.”

Zack sat on his bed abruptly, saying the worst case scenario aloud made it feel far more real and likely. Some living legacy he was turning out to be. What kind of hero, never saved anyone he set out to protect? 

His phone rang and Zack answered without looking, refusing to presume the worst and wallow, not today, not yet. Cloud was missing, and all the experts thought he was alive and making bad decisions. Zack could work with a fifteen year old who’d made a bad decision. “Zack Fair,” he answered.

“Hey, this is Daniels, the MP you spoke to this afternoon. It was an act of congress to get this number.”

“Pretty sure it’s in the company directory. You’re quite the detective.” Zack had rather hoped the caller would be Kunsel, exceeding expectations as usual. “Did you have something for me?”

“Look, the local authorities brought in some pretty definitive evidence. You said Strife was a friend, well you were right about him. He did not desert.” 

He might have followed that admission with a proud ‘I told you so!’ but the man’s tone set Zack on edge. It was how everyone talked to him after Angeal’s death, all sympathy and caution. “I can come in. Are you at your office?” Zack asked.

“It’s better if I come to you. I’m almost there. Bright Tower Hotel, right?” Daniels said. 

“Yeah, room 405. Come on up.” Even if no one would ever mistake Zack for a turk, he could add two plus two and he did not have a good feeling about the evidence that was coming his way, or the manner in which it was coming. The detective hadn’t just found his phone number and called, he found his hotel and came to see him in person.

Daniels arrived looking far too formal and solemn. “I’m sorry, Fair, but I don’t have good news about your friend.”

Arms crossed and expression resolute, Zack nodded. “Figured. I want to see the evidence. Show me.”

“He was your friend, a good enough friend that you took time off, flew down here, and started knocking heads together to find him.” Daniels looked uncomfortable. “There are things you can’t unsee. You don’t want to watch the video.”

Zack literally winced at all the past tense, Daniels was throwing around. “There’s a video? What the Hell happened? Wait. Never mind, just show me. I’m not a civilian. I can handle it.”

“Yes sir,” Daniels agreed, “If that’s what you want.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The pay off chapter for what the heck happened a week before the SOLDIER exam is next chapter. Promise I’m not dragging it out any longer.


	7. Lonely

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: I marked the warning for graphic descriptions of violence. If you’ve read this far, you probably think I’m overly dramatic, but this chapter is graphic. 
> 
> The inspiration for this story and this chapter came from the first three minutes of Snow Patrol’s The Lightning Strike. If you’ve not heard it, I recommend the song.
> 
> Hope ya’ll enjoy the conclusion of act one.

_Perfectly carved pieces of an intricate puzzle, Rain, Lor, and Ollio just fit. Like one of Eaddy’s towers in the woods, they had grown together, shoring each other’s weaknesses, one strengthening the other until together they were a seamless unit._

_Lor had physically grown the most, a giant of a Cetra with inky black hair and an equally large, curved sword. In close combat, he was both lethal and sturdy, able to shrug off blows that would kill most. Ollio never relinquished his title as the best spell caster among them and with his bow he was surgical from a distance._

_Rain specialized in speed. His spear darted into their enemies’ defense, dealing damage in calculated, controlled blows. He also had a nice side hustle in status ailments. One battle after Rain successfully inflicted slow, poison, stop, confusion, sleep, and blind on a reef dragon, Ollio had joked that he always wondered what would happen if someone started breeding chocobos with malboros. Lor had laughed, but Rain preened. Chocobos were excellent birds and malboros were nothing to scoff at. He would never be the strongest or the best with materia or even the smartest, but he made them better in his own way._

_Alone, in pairs, or all three together, they could never get the best of Ged. Their teacher would cast and dodge, but they’d never even seen his gift from the goddess. His weapon was a mystery. He didn’t need it to fight them._

_After their latest humbling spar, Lor had taken the worst of the damage. Ollio was trying to heal him but Lor wouldn’t sit still. They had tried a new strategy. Rain sent Lor berserk for the extra strength boost (the man almost never cast in battle anyway) and the status hadn’t completely worn off._

_“It’s infuriating. We shouldn’t be so easily defeated. We’re three strong. He’s alone. We have to be better than this,” Lor bellowed. Ollio finally got a cleanse to stick and remove the lingering status ailment. Rain tried not to show how pleased he was that the status had clung so perniciously. “Sorry brothers, I just hate losing.”_

_“Come on, you know how old Ged is?” Ollio asked. “We’re never taking him down. He roamed Gaia when the families were still one. He fought Chaos himself with his two brothers and was the only one to survive.”_

_Lor snorted but he smiled. “Ged beat back the Dark Drainers before our grannies were born using just his fists and a fire materia.”_

_The two of them could go back and forth for hours. Telling tales about Ged’s supposed feats of valor. It was a game of old stories that the brothers had been telling for as long as they’d known one another. If told properly, each story had the cadence of an oral history like some of the families still passed down. When he was still a child, Rain had loved listening to the adventures. Ged was a hero among heroes, living and fighting for the Cetra for centuries. Now that he was older and understood what a Lightning’s brothers really meant, the stories just made him sad. Ged’s brothers died at their first test and left him alone to fight without them._

_Once they were healed and washed up, Ollio shot his brothers a smirk. “Okay boys, I’ve been planning to head down to the human settlement that cropped up on the coast. Would either of you like to join me?”_

_Lor’s face drew into a puckered expression as though he’d just been invited to a latrine for drinks. “No thank you.”_

_“Don’t be like that. It’s not like we can find a nice Cetra girl and settle down. Have you ever_ danced _with a human girl?” Ollio asked, but by his expression, dancing wasn’t what he was talking about. “It can be nice.”_

_“I’d rather_ dance _with a sheep. They have a closer connection to Gaia. Humans are repugnant.” Lor took out a much dog-eared book of poems and prayers and started reading._

_“I’ll go,” Rain said. “Even if I don’t do any_ dancing _, there’s probably some interesting things to drink and eat.”_

_“That’s my brother,” Ollio cheered. “You sure you want to sit up here by yourself and read that silly book again, Lor? You know, if you don’t come, Rain here might be corrupted by the evil humans and his reprobate bother.”_

_“You’re an ass,” Lor snapped, but he put his book away and joined them on the path toward the coast._

_“Excellent,” Ollio said. “There will be humans, but just think, you might meet a nice sheep too.”_

_Rain side-stepped to avoid the fist fight that broke out between his brothers and rolled his eyes. He took a second to reorder his materia and cast an nice solid stop boosted by a magnify. Literally frozen mid scuffle the two men were just able to cut their eyes at him murderously. “Can’t we postpone the fight until after dinner? I’m starving.”_

* * *

**Nine days before the SOLDIER exam:**

Cloud had felt guilty calling his ma with the Rain situation. If he felt conflicted about his father, he couldn’t imagine his ma feeling anything positive for the man. He’d spewed the whole story out anyway, barely taking a breath. His ma had gone quiet for a few beats and then she helped him crystallize a reasonable path forward.

“Oh Cloudy, you got a double helping of the Strife family luck.” Cloud could see her expression in his mind’s eye, brow wrinkled with concern. “Of course you want to help him. My Cloudy, prickly as a pear but still always trying to do the right thing. I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d offer him the means to help himself and if he didn’t take it, I wouldn’t feel guilty for one second.” 

“The point is, I don’t think he can help himself, ma.”

Claudia sighed. “Mideel is under Shinra’s jurisdiction. There’s good and bad to that. Shinra will have some form of social services installed and if you fill out the right forms and if Rain meets the right criteria, they’ll help him if he lets them.” 

“Really? How on Gaia do you know about that stuff?” Cloud asked.

“Oh baby, even Nibelheim has a Shinra social services department. Here it’s just Ms. Wanda that plays the piano down at the church. When I came down off the mountain with a newborn and nothing else to my name, she helped set me up with emergency housing and made sure we didn’t starve while I got us established.”

Cloud frowned at the image of his mom begging Shinra to survive. “You’re telling me the people in Nibelheim would have let us freeze in the gutter?”

“Of course not, but Wanda knew how to fill the paperwork out so Shinra paid the church back for their charity. You show him the help that’s there if he needs it and don’t lose a second’s sleep afterwards, you hear me baby?”

“Okay,” Cloud agreed. “That’s reasonable. I could even be wrong. So he’s quirky. He might be living in a house on the hill with three bedrooms and a pool.”

“You never know. Now I want to talk about you, Cloud. Have you made any friends? You know, Tifa stopped by the restaurant. She said she got a letter from you.”

**Eight days before the SOLDIER exam:**

“Hey, your stalker came back,” Lewis said. “I thought you chased him off?”

Of course, Cloud had noticed his father’s return to the public bench, and he actually nodded subtly back to Rain’s wave. “I did, but you know family.”

“Family can be shit,” Lewis said, repeating his sage observation from Rain’s last visit.

“I won’t be late, but head on without me. I’m going to say a word to him.” Cloud strode away from his duty partners to stand in front of Rain. “So, here you are again.”

“I did warn you that I wouldn’t actually stay away. Are you heading on shift?” Rain asked. “You look well.”

“You too.” Cloud didn’t mention that Rain was wearing the same worn old shirt and pants that he had been since they first met. “I’ll be off duty tomorrow. If you want, we could meet up and maybe talk. I’d like to see where you stay.”

Rain gazed back at him, a serene expression on his face. “You don’t need to save me, Cloud, but it’s strangely gratifying that you’re driven to try. You are remarkable.” The pride in Rain’s tone was unmistakable and Cloud felt flustered. “We can meet here if that’s okay? Maybe we’ll eat something and you can check out my lovely home,” Rain offered.

Cloud couldn’t decide if he believed half of the things Rain said. “I’ll be off duty early, around eight. If I don’t sleep a few hours, I’ll be useless. So we could meet at one?”

Rain clapped a hand on his shoulder and nodded. “Tomorrow then.”

**Seven days before the SOLDIER exam:**

Whatever Cloud expected from his lunch-date-with-dad, Rain seemed determined to defy expectations. Holding court at his usual green public bench, he was sporting new clothes, not more fashionable than his usual outfit, but better quality. Leather that had been cared for aged into a soft buttery surface and Rain’s new suit was unmistakably well-worn leather, simple runic designs burned into some of the panels. He looked like someone in a play, or maybe someone heading to a historical festival. Was there a historical dress-up section to Mideel’s spring festival? 

“Am I underdressed?” Cloud adjusted his clean uniform. 

“Not at all. I’ve had this old suit since… well for a very long time. If you care for dragonhide properly, it lasts forever. This was made by my very own mother. It’s sharp, isn’t it?” Rain stood and spun, modeling the unique outfit proudly.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cloud said, completely honestly. 

Instead of heading into the festival to find a restaurant or booth selling food, Rain led the way around the hustle and bustle of the main streets and out of the city. “Where exactly are we going?” Cloud asked.

“You wanted to see my home. I thought we’d start there.” Purposefully staying away from the main thoroughfares, Rain cut down a narrow, overgrown path that disappeared into literal wilderness. 

“Do you get monsters here? I’d feel better with a rifle or a sword. I’m off duty. My weapon is in the armory,” Cloud said, balking at the shady canopy. 

“Don’t worry. I travel this way every day. There is nothing on this island I can’t handle.” Rain tapped his chest over his heart. “You aren’t the only military man in the family. When I told you that I was the last of the Lightning, it meant something.”

“Explain it to me,” Cloud said. “What’s the Lightning?”

Composed and contemplative, Rain very obviously was considering his answer. They had been walking for a few minutes before he started talking. “My family were part of a tribe of beautiful, kind… soft people.” He walked up to a tree, whose branches were overflowing with white spring flowers. “I wasn’t like them, neither sweet or particularly pleasant. I didn’t paint pretty pictures or design lovely towers.” Rain carefully pushed the tree’s blossoms aside to reveal dramatically sharp spikes protruding from the tree’s bark. “Lightning are thorns, sharp accessories, protectors of soft, vulnerable things.”

It was obvious that Rain was dressing his explanation in euphemisms and metaphors, avoiding lying without saying more than he wanted to. His cagey response was so removed from the babbling madman at the festival for their first meeting that Cloud had to wonder if Rain had episodes, like a bipolar person might? “So you were in some rural militia for a village?” 

“Close enough.” Rain took Cloud’s hand and smiled. “The next step is tricky. I’ve got you.”

The world stuttered for a moment as Rain tugged him forward, through an invisible path into a thicket. Cloud felt intensely motion sick, like he were rocking around in a boat instead of standing solidly on his feet, but Rain’s grip was iron and he pulled him through even when Cloud would have stopped or tried to turn back. Rain released him once they were free of the foliage.

Maybe it was the forest or maybe a storm was coming but it was immediately cooler and the light was nearly gone. “What was that?” Cloud glanced back the way they had come but the thicket was unrecognizable, the leafy vegetation from before replaced by towering conifers. The distant sound of the city had completely vanished. 

“Just a shortcut. We’re almost there.” Rain continued confidently, and Cloud followed, far less certain of the situation than he had been seconds ago. Ahead of them the forest opened up but not to clear skies. 

A tree like no tree Cloud had ever seen stood before them. It’s roots extended out for what seemed like a mile, growing above the ground in a torturously tangled mess. No other vegetation grew within a meter of its most distal extension. “Home is through there,” Rain said. “You’ll have to take off your shoes to pass. They’ll be safe here.” He tugged off his own boots and set them in the clear space between the conifer forest and the mutant tree. Like a child playing on a balance beam, he scampered nimbly up onto one of the more substantial roots.

“You have a tree house?” Cloud asked, making no move to touch his own footwear. He looked back through the thick trees and wondered if he could find the shortcut back without his father to guide him. “I’ve never been much of a tree climber,” Cloud lied. He had climbed everything within a day’s hike of Nibelheim by the time he was eight. 

Rain crouched with his arms folded over his knees and smiled back mischievously. “You don’t know what you’ve been missing. Climb this tree with me. See my home. We’ve come all this way.”

_What are you afraid of?_ Cloud asked himself. With a groan he kicked his boots off and shoved his socks into them. He tied the laces together so he could throw the boots around his neck like an unattractive accessory. “If those boots get lost, I’ll be in trouble,” Cloud explained, but he climbed up to stand next to his father. “Where to now?”

Rain rose from his crouch, completely balanced and graceful. Like someone who climbed this tree every day he picked his path forward easily, no hesitation and Cloud followed without much trouble.

“Tell me why you joined the military?” Rain asked. 

Cloud shrugged though Rain couldn’t see the gesture. “There wasn’t any work for the kids back in Nibelheim. The reactor was fully staffed.” Telling his estranged father the truths he’d shared with Tifa about his dreams of being a SOLDIER and a hero never even crossed his mind. “It’s a job.”

“Are you sure that’s why?” Rain stopped and crouched down again, this time digging his hand down into the tree’s roots. “Why don’t we take a rest? I’m an old man.”

“Are you, really? You don’t look old enough to have a grown kid. How old were you when you met my mom?” Cloud took a knee beside him, but Rain didn’t actually look the least bit tired. 

“I was an old man then. I’ve been an old man for a very long time,” Rain said, as though confiding a great secret. “Everything that lives dies. Most things are born and they grow. They reproduce and decay. Lightning aren’t complete like that. They’re born for a purpose and they’re meant to eventually die in that purpose. The reproducing and decaying aren’t part of their cycle.”

Cloud took a second to digest that odd assertion. They were back to the delusions again. “So you think you’re some kind of immortal?”

“No, I’m a Lightning who hasn’t found his death. The Goddess found a purpose for me. She changed the cycle I‘m supposed to exist in and I’ve brought you to her. Listen Cloud, and try to hear her.” Rain took one of Cloud’s hands and pressed it into the tree’s roots, almost over balancing him. “Just try.”

“I’m sorry, but the only thing I hear out here is the wind and you,” Cloud said. He tried to stand, but his feet were stuck fast, as was the hand, Rain had pushed down. The tree was shifting under him, holding him in place. “What’s happening? Rain?”

“She doesn’t speak in words, Cloud. She wants you here, here with me. If you hear her, she might decided that’s enough. Try to listen,” Rain begged. “I don’t want to make you.”

“Rain, let me up. Help me right now. This isn’t okay.” Cloud tried to sound commanding and not terrified.

“Oh great Goddess guide my hand. Lead me down your path. Help my son shed his skin and let him hear you,” Rain chanted. “Oh great Goddess, guide my hand truly forward.”

Rain rose, a long silver spear clutched in one hand. He took the sharp tip and settled it over Cloud, right at the junction of his neck and clavicle. 

Cloud lost the battle with terror for an impossibly long moment and literally couldn’t speak, the cool heavy sharpness digging slowly deeper into the hollow under his neck. “Whatever this is, please don’t. We can talk some more. Rain, you don’t want to hurt me.” 

His father continued to cry but he began chanting again, begging his Goddess for guidance. Cloud bucked and strained at the roots holding him in position, his heart hammering away in his chest. He was not dying out here in the woods, murdered by his own insane father in some delusional fit. A SOLDIER would not die here, not like this. 

“Oh Goddess, please take his pain,” Rain begged. With a single practiced thrust, he shoved the spear down, skewering Cloud through his torso, burying the spear deep into the writhing tree roots. 

Cloud screamed for only a second as his father’s spear cut him, not because the pain was short-lived, but because it pierced both his lungs on its way through him. Capable of only weak bloody gurgles, Cloud tugged at the anchored weapon with his one free hand, never looking away from Rain’s weeping, solemn expression. 

A thousand ruined hopes and desires flashed though his mind’s eye. He never kissed Tifa, never passed the SOLDIER exam, never ate a shrimp with Zack. If his voice weren’t lost in the wave of blood spilling out his mouth and soaking into the vicious tree, Cloud would have asked his father why. 

Rain was chanting again and the wind was blowing, cold and gusty. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed, too close for Cloud to ignore, even through his pain and while slowly drowning in his own blood. His father threw his hands in the air screaming unintelligibly, and with a blinding flash that lit the silver spear, Cloud’s pain finally ended with a jolt of electric fire.


	8. Conclusive Evidence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which the video is both watched and its existence is explained, but many things are thoroughly misunderstood.

_The existing Lightning knew something was up when their home started growing massively. Room after room shooting up out of the ground with space for three beds in each. Ten years later and there were hundreds of young Lightning running around. In another few years, they’d be an army._

_“Why is this happening?” Rain asked._

_Lor shrugged, but Ollio answered glibly. “The goddess sees something very bad coming. She thinks we’re going to need the man power.”_

_“Have there ever been this many Lightning?” Rain asked Ged._

_“Yes and no, there were fifty one when we faced Chaos and for the size of the Cetra nation of the time that’s approximately proportionate per capita,” Ged answered, blandly._

_“So you’re saying this is Chaos-level bad?” Rain asked._

_“I’m not saying anything. The Goddess is speaking. We just need to listen.” Ged clapped Rain on the shoulder. “Another triad is ready. I’ve got to collect them. Divide and conquer gentlemen. Start taking the triads to the Amie. Let them draw their weapons.”_

_Once Ged was gone and couldn’t hear his complaints, Lor let loose grumbling. “I did not sign up for this. Do I look like a babysitter?”_

_“You signed up?” Ollio asked. “See I got born into this particular job.”_

_“Why do you always have to twist my words,” Lor complained. “You’re supposed to have my back, not mock my every concern. Rain you’re with me?”_

_Rain took a single step backwards, a simple physical signal that he didn’t want to take sides. “I don’t mind the babysitting. Kids can be fun. Looks at them all. It’s like we’ve got a herd of baby chocobos.” Rain ruffled his own fluffily spiked hair for emphasis. “I’m going to take the first triad up unless you guys want to.”_

_“You’re not with me either? How did a non-confrontational, tiny Cetra like you ever get taken as a Lightning?” Lor asked. “Go ahead then. Avoid the fight. It’s what you always do.”_

_Lor’s insults didn’t actually hurt his feelings. Rain knew him too well to take him seriously. Verbal sparring relieved his stress. With a gesture too quick to easily follow he cast silence. “If Ollio doesn’t take mercy on you, that’s not wearing off for a week. Then you’ll have a great excuse not to babysit. You’re welcome.”_

_He and Ollio took turns all day leading the children for their first visit to Amie, the goddess tree. It wasn’t a chore to Rain. The ritual was comforting. The words changed a bit with the audience but it felt like a familiar song that he could listen to a thousand times. It was amazing watching their faces light up with wonder as they heard her for the first time, each of them drawing a shiny silver weapon._

_When Ged finally returned he took Rain and his brothers aside. “You seem to have made good progress with the children. Did the Goddess speak to you when you cycled through?”_

_“No more than usual,” Ollio said. “Did she speak to you, Lor?”_

_Still silenced, Lor crossed his arms and waited for someone to give up on the joke and cancel the status effect. When neither of them moved to help, he pulled a very valuable elixir out and smirked a dare at them both. Rain cleansed the silence immediately._

_“He wouldn’t have wasted it,” Ollio moaned. “If you don’t stick to your punishments, he’ll never learn.”_

_Rain shrugged. “You didn’t get acid burns acquiring the chimera blood to make the elixirs.”_

_Ged sighed and raised a hand. “You’re not children anymore. I need you all to take this more seriously starting now.”_

_The three of them exchanged quick glances that said what they needed without words. Standing straighter, Rain spoke up first. “None of us have heard her voice, but Lor didn’t visit Amie today.”_

_“I was, recalcitrant and rude,” Lor admitted blandly. “Rain corrected the behavior so that I wasn’t able to assist today. The problem won’t recur, sir.”_

_Ged nodded, “Good enough. I hear her voice all the time, but understanding is often slow. Did you notice anything about the triads? How did their choosing play out?”_

_“It was actually a little strange,” Ollio said. “None of the threes were balanced. They were all ranged or all melee or all light arms, no mixed groups at all.”_

_“I saw that,” Rain agreed. “The first group all pulled variations on bows.”_

_“Her pattern seems more clear now, to me,” Ged said. “I wasn’t sure why you three were sent the way that you were, twenty springs ago. Anything that three young Lightning could handle, I could handle alone, so I waited and trained you three to your current level of, near competence.”_

_Rain felt Lor tense beside him, always sensitive about criticism of their skill. “You see what’s coming, sir?”_

_“I see our roles better,” Ged clarified. “You three were sent early and are meant to be field commanders. Your soldiers are here now that you’re competent enough to prepare them.”_

_“How are we supposed to give them a proper education? There are so many of them. I can get them ready to fight and cast, but who’s going to handle the other things, reading and writing, mathematics and potion making?” Ollio asked._

_“Focus on teaching them to fight. Let me worry about the rest,” Ged said._

_Lor laughed without humor. “Translation, if they survive the coming Chaos-level threat, we’ll deal with their literacy then.”_

_“They’re Lightning, we all are. It’s a great honor and all of our destiny to fall in battle. Don’t pretend it’s a tragedy. Don’t let them die uselessly. Make sure it matters. If we don’t stop whatever is coming, that’s the tragedy.”_

* * *

There are some things you can’t unsee, Daniels warned. But Zack had seen and done so many brutal things on his road to becoming a first class SOLDIER. It was a rare night that he didn’t dream about death or destruction. Every night since Modeoheim held some variation of Angeal’s drawn, tired face and feathers in the wind. 

Daniels handed over a standard Shinra-issued tablet and went to rummage in the room’s mini-bar. The man rattled off the unlock code and indicated that the video should be open and ready to go. Zack didn’t tell the video to play, propping it up on the kitchenette’s table. “I have a couple of questions. Is this cc tv footage?”

“Yeah no, it’s some college kid’s research.” Daniels dumped a generous serving of vodka into a paper cup and offered it to Zack. 

“There’s not enough booze in that bar to touch me. Please though, help yourself,” Zack said. “Research?”

“Yes, so a large portion of Mideel is undeveloped and according to the little scientist that turned in that video, it’s biologically interesting. She’s got some kind of motion sensing cameras monitoring a carnivorous tree. The ground around it trembles when it catches something. Her cameras start recording. No one watches in real time, but as soon as she saw what they’d captured, she turned the footage in to the local authorities who forwarded it on to us.” Daniels took a drink from his cup. “I could just tell you what’s on there. You really don’t have to watch.”

“A carnivorous tree ate my friend?” Zack asked. 

“Sort of, I mean yes, but there’s more to it, It was a gods damned pagan ritual or something. The tree was just the body disposal strategy, I think.” Daniels took another drink.

Zack didn’t really consider not watching the video. Even if Daniels had said it was a clear accident with some strange mutant Mideel flora, he needed to know for sure. Zack punched the tablet’s code in and started the video. The recoding opened abruptly with a pair of blond men relatively close by, discussing tree houses and removing their shoes. That would be the family member his coworkers had mentioned. Cloud didn’t call the man by name, and soon they were moving away from the camera and its microphone. Though the camera auto-focused on the moving target, their voices were quickly lost in the wind. 

Knowing that he was about to watch something violent, didn’t stop Zack from flinching when he realized that Cloud was trapped, root tendrils wrapping around his limbs and holding him in position. He watched, unblinking, hoping for Cloud to flip the script and escape, but when the other man attacked with his spear, Zack popped to his feet. 

SOLDIERs often had to be counseled about controlling their anger, never surrendering to rage. Zack had attended the mandatory counseling sessions as a fresh third, but had never actually struggled with that emotion. Today he just wanted to hack the blond, spear-wielding maniac in half with a dull buster sword.

Zack couldn’t just watch anymore. He paced, catching Cloud’s final moments in glimpses and glances. Cloud bleeding, his mouth moving with no words for him to hear. Thunder drowned out everything as a chain of lightning struck the spear over and over, dozens of times. Unbothered by the lightning, the tree’s roots pulled his brutally murdered friend down until only the spear remained above the surface. 

The murderer took his spear and dropped into a tight ball of a crouch. His words were no more intelligible now but Zack stared hard, determined to never forget the man’s face. He looked so damn much like his friend. Family. Cloud didn’t trust anyone lightly, but he’d let this man lead him to his death. 

SOLDIERs couldn’t afford to lose control, they couldn’t rage about and punch walls. A SOLDIER punching walls could destroy a building. Maybe he could find something more appropriate to punch. “This tree is close by?” Zack envisioned pulling it up one carnivorous root at a time. 

“No, it’s clean on the other side of the island, three day’s hike over land, a good two hours by chopper. We’ll send a forensics team out but according to the local authorities, the tree is unique. It’s a protected species. Getting to the crime scene without getting eaten or damaging the tree will be near impossible. Besides that it’s been a more than a week. Strife is digested and gone.”

“So, you’re saying I’m not allowed to burn it down?” Zack asked, grimly serious.

“No sir, you’re not. I’d say we should be focusing on the human with the spear. The tree didn’t kill your friend. It ate him, sure, but the murderer walked in and walked back out,” Daniels said. “By the looks of things, he was the family the other infantrymen mentioned. We’ve got a face. Next step is a name. Then onward to justice.” Daniels poured himself another substantial portion of vodka.

“I expect nothing less.” Zack picked up the tablet, frozen with the murder’s face centered on the screen. If you couldn’t compartmentalize your emotions it was hard to survive in any military entity, so Zack swallowed his anger and his grief, tied them up and set them aside to digest later. There was a mission at hand. “I’ve got eleven days left of a two week vacation. How can I help find this individual?”

“You really want to help? Do you have a way to get in touch with Strife’s mother that doesn’t involve letters into the wilderness? Claudia Strife is the only real lead we have on that man’s identity.”

“Isn’t there a PHS number in Cloud’s file?” Zack asked. “They have phones even way out in the mountains.”

“Nope, I’m literally going to have to interview her by mail unless I can figure a work around,” Daniels said, glumly.

“I don’t want to sound ghoulish, but just have whoever is going to notify her about Cloud’s death stay long enough to interview her,” Zack suggested. “She’s his mom. She’ll want this guy to pay for what he did, family or not.”

“In what universe do you think Shinra is sending live death notifications for their infantrymen?” Daniels chuckled without humor. “They just send form letters with the cause of death and the family’s estimated death benefit scribbled in the blanks.” Daniels drained the last of his vodka and frowned into the empty cup. “I know it’s a murder investigation, but he’s still just an infantryman. Shinra won’t authorize the expense of sending someone to flipping Nibelheim, trust me.” Daniels shrugged, listing ever so slightly under the effects of the alcohol he had consumed so quickly. “I’m sorry about your friend. Sorry everyone was calling him a deserter too. It wasn’t right.” 

Zack used the MP’s tablet to quietly forward a copy of the video to himself and after a moment’s thought, sent a copy to Kunsel with a quick note regarding the contents. “We need a face-to-face with Ms. Strife, and I’ve got plenty of time for a trip to Nibelheim. Can you arrange the death notification so I can deliver it? If Cloud’s mom knows spear-guy, I’ll find out.”

* * *

There were no direct flights to Nibelheim from Mideel. Zack had to hop three different transports to make it back to Midgar. From Midgar he was scheduled to ride on a plane headed to Wutai that was refueling in Nibelheim. With his three hour layover in Midgar, he had one goal. 

He took a train down to the sector five slums and made a beeline for the old church. A logical man would text Aerith and make sure she was there, but Zack wasn’t feeling logical. He pushed through the doors expectant and hopeful, but the old damaged building stood empty. 

He dropped bonelessly onto one of the pews, pulled his PHS out and started texting.

 **Zack:** Hey

 **Aerith:** Zack! How is Mideel? Did you find your friend?

 **Zack:** Found him. 

**Aerith:** Great! Tell me everything! 

**Aerith:** Zack? 

**Zack:** Friend died.

 **Aerith:** Oh Zack, are you okay?

 **Zack:** Just miss you. I’m at the church.

 **Aerith:** Really? I’m close. Don’t move!

In only a few minutes, the doors creaked open and Aerith’s light-footed tread could be heard on the wooden floor. She walked straight to his occupied pew and gently nudged his head. “Budge up, Zack. I’m going to sit.”

He leaned forward and she settled, cradling his head on her lap. She looked down at him, and gently petted his hair out of his face. “You’re too softhearted for your profession. Your friends die and it rips you to pieces every time.”

“SOLDIERs are not softhearted,” Zack said, quietly. 

“They aren’t? In that case, you need a new career. Floristry is a growth industry. You could be my apprentice.” Aerith never stopped rhythmically stroking his hair, petting and comforting. 

“I’ve got to catch a flight in an hour to Nibelheim. I volunteered to notify my friend’s mother that he died. What if I say the wrong thing to her?” 

Aerith came to her feet, dislodging Zack with a gentle shift. “Tradition can help when words are hard. I have just the thing.” A small bouquet of red and white carnations came together under Aerith’s hands in a few short seconds. “Flowers have always been gifts of comfort at death.”

* * *

She knew it was old fashioned and unscientific but Claudia had always trusted her intuition. A few weeks into her pregnancy, she’d suspected the life growing inside her. She’d known her father was dead long before the Huston boys trekked down to bring her the news. The ever reliable niggle in the back of her mind let her down when it came to the SOLDIER standing on her doorstep, a letter in one hand and some flowers in the other. She hadn’t had a whisper of a suspicion that her baby might be in trouble.

Claudia opened the door on autopilot, unable to find words to greet her unwelcome visitor. 

“Are you Claudia Strife?” the man asked, standing ramrod straight.

“Yes, would you like to come in?” Claudia’s voice sounded so normal to her own ears. 

“I’m Zack Fair, SOLDIER first class, a friend of your son’s.”

She showed him to her tiny living room and insisted he sit. She took the flowers from him, ostensibly to give them water. Then she set the kettle on to boil for tea, without even asking her guest if he wanted a drink. Avoiding what he was going to say, was the only defense open to her.

“Do you take milk?” she asked, once the water was boiling and the tea was actually steeping. 

“No thank you,” Zack said, but he accepted the cup of black tea she poured. 

“So, what brings you here? Did Cloud send you? I can’t imagine what real flowers cost in Midgar. I’ll have to tell him to be more frugal,” Claudia rambled.

“Unfortunately, I have some bad news.” Zack tried to focus on the checklist Kunsel had found for him regarding death notifications. Be clear and concise. Be honest but empathetic. “While deployed in Mideel, your son, Cloud, was killed.”

Claudia stopped pouring the tea and dropped the kettle back to the table with a clatter that sloshed hot liquid everywhere. She made no move to wipe up the spill. “He said it was just a silly little mission, security for a festival. Was it Avalanche?” How ironic would it be if an avalanche killed her father and her son?

“He was deployed but not on duty, Zack clarified. He was murdered. We were hoping that you could identify the person who attacked him. I have a picture. We think he might have been family.” 

Claudia didn’t need to see the picture, but she looked. “His name is Rain.”

“Rain Strife?” Zack asked.

“Rain I don’t know his surname, Rain. He’s Cloud’s father.” Claudia crumpled the picture up and dropped it to the floor. “You have him in custody? Do you know why he hurt him?” She stood, knocking her chair over, but she made no effort to right it. 

“Not yet, but they’re looking for him.” Zack mopped up the spilled beverage with a tea towel and he righted Claudia’s chair. “Ms. Strife, if there is anything you need, any questions you have?”

“Zack was it? I think you’re wrong. This is all wrong. He can’t be dead. I’d know. I knew he was alive when he was a few dozen cells in my womb. There is no way he died and I didn’t feel it. Rain was a bastard, but he wouldn’t kill my baby. Someone has it wrong.”

“I wouldn’t tell you something like this if I wasn’t sure. There’s a video. I saw it. It was Cloud and Rain. Rain stabbed him with a spear.”

Claudia clapped her hands and shouted, “No! You need to go. I can’t hear this right now. So just get out.”

Zack nodded. He held out the letter from Shinra. “When you’re ready for it. Details about his death benefits and other information.” He left the letter next to the teapot. “I’ll be in town a few days. When you’re ready, the MP heading the murder investigation really wants to interview you.” 

Claudia silently gestured to her front door, and Zack left without argument. 

A normal man wouldn’t have had to listen to Claudia rip her home apart, shattering dishes and throwing furniture. He was halfway back to the local inn when the modest sounds of civilization in Nibelheim finally obscured the destructive clamor of her grief.


	9. Gathering Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If things go to plan, Zack is going to meet Rain next chapter. I’m trash at writing fight scenes, so it may take me a whole week to get it together. We’ll see.

_Preparing for years to fight a war, you would think the Lightning would have known the moment their enemy arrived. But Calamity fell from the sky, a bright shooting star and they were oblivious for several critical days._

* * *

_Twisting her impractically long blond hair into a messy bun, Eaddy quickly prepared for a field trip, dressing for the cold and packing a nice pile of supplies into a satchel. Her mentor Kolah had been dispatched to investigate a meteorite that had fallen on the northern continent, and she had been invited to assist._

_It had taken her years longer to be assigned a mentor than most members of the fire family. It was often like that for transplants. She was born to a prominent earth family and everyone expected her to go home when she realized how hard it would be to go a new direction. But Eaddy could be stubborn and she didn’t want to heal or nurture or build for her path. She wanted to research, to explore, to invent._

_The fire family made change, and Cetra could be so set in their ways._

_Standing strong and tall, grey hair braided back out of her face, Kohla waited with a slick wooden staff in hand. “Are you ready, then?”_

_Eaddy nodded, repositioning her heavy pack. Her mentor disappeared into the nearby shortcut and she hurried after her. Traveling by shortcut always left her a touch nauseated, but even for long distances, the travel was very short making the discomfort more than worth it._

_One moment they were standing in the relatively warm climate of the eastern continent and then they were a thousand miles away, sinking into deep snowdrifts. The shock of cold air in her face stole her breath. Both women took a few moments to acclimate themselves before starting their long trek through the barren snowfields._

_The wind family dutifully maintained the paths between the continents, but there wasn’t much demand for paths to frozen wastes so their options for arrival had been exceedingly limited. Even with the shortcut, it would be hours before they reached their goal. Following her mentor forward without complaint, Eaddy was just glad to be part of an important investigation._

_The sun was sinking in the sky by the time they’d reached the edge of the crater. Kohla chose a camp site, signaling that they would continue their investigation with sunrise. She passed the fire materia to her student and set about assembling their shelter. It was subtle, but the respect of her mentor letting her build the fire and not delegating the shelter construction, filled Eaddy with pride. The other Fire had a tendency to ask her to do the building. She’d been raised to it, calling forth towers before she could read or write, why not make her do the work they had less regard for if she was good at it?_

_Once the fire was burning well, Eaddy set a pot with a heaping scoop of snow to boil. The boxy ice house Kohla had constructed was rudimentary, but functional. Her mother would have been horrified at the utilitarian nature of the temporary structure, but Eaddy wouldn’t have dreamed of critiquing the aesthetics._

_“Have you thought about our approach the the meteorite tomorrow?” Kohla asked, only after they had been properly fed. “Have you been trying to listen for how Gaia is feeling around the crater?”_

_Eaddy nodded, “Of course. Gaia wasn’t painfully injured. The Meteorite wasn’t large enough to cause deep damage. We need to approach the site carefully, determine what we’re dealing with.”_

_“Yes, but what do you hear?” Kohla patted the ground._

_Eaddy didn’t need to touch the ground to sense what she was being asked. “The meteorite feels alive.”_

_“The goddess doesn’t like it, but she hasn’t called the Lightning down on it and the Lightning are stronger in numbers now than they’ve been in generations,” Kohla expanded. “What do you make of it?”_

_“I don’t know,” Eaddy said, solemnly. “We may be walking into the conflict of our generation, or it may just be a meteorite.”_

_“Gaia has sent us to this moment for a reason. There is every chance, that if we handle this situation correctly, we could save our people a war. I invited you on this mission, not because you are a gifted Fire. You’re learning and you’ll find your way with us. I invited you because you’re a natural Earth, gifted at the life magics. It’s my hope, that you will save us if I can’t see how.”_

_Eaddy nodded. “I will try my very best.”_

_Sleep didn’t come quickly for her. Eaddy couldn’t stop thinking about tomorrow and oddly her little brother. Rain had vanished from her life decades ago without even a goodbye when he was only seven, taken to become a mythical warrior, a Lightning. If they failed, her brother might finally meet his purpose._

_The thought didn’t bring her comfort._

_The little boy who couldn’t find another child to play with him would be all grown up now. Her brother, the warrior, she just couldn’t imagine the little boy of her memory as anything but a baby faced cherub. Maybe she would see him if this meteorite was the great threat the planet had been anticipating?_

_As Eaddy finally drifted to sleep, she wondered if she would recognize Rain if she did see him again.  
_

* * *

The conditioning track was occupied at all hours, various and sundry of the military using the facility when their schedules allowed. Since the end of his not-vacation, Zack had spent a lot of time running. He couldn’t seem to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time. His mind refused to shut down. 

He had been running for several hours, when a SOLDIER joined him, pacing him at his right. Zack sped up, silently informing the interloper that he wasn’t looking for companionship, but the SOLDIER kept coming. Despite the fact that he’d been running for literally hours, he pushed himself faster. 

And then they were racing.

Turns out if you spend a few hours running and skip a meal or two beforehand, you won’t win a race with a second class SOLDIER, first or not. Zack gave up. He jogged out into the center of the track and collapsed dramatically on a sparring mat.

“Are you trying to kill me?” Zack asked.

“Nope, just trying to check on you,” Kunsel said. “Are you trying to kill me? I’m a lowly second here.” He joined Zack on the mat, panting. 

“I know I’ve not been around, but there were missions and I had just been on vacation, so I did ALL the missions, you know?” Zack explained lamely. 

“Vacation, right, you went on a murder investigation and had to leave before they found the killer. I would hazard you need a real vacation, not all the missions the mission desk will give you,” Kunsel said. “Seriously, lets go down and get breakfast. They’ll be serving in a bit.”

“I don’t think I could eat,” Zack said. “I’ll grab lunch when I’m not about to die from heat exhaustion.”

Kunsel reached over and tugged on Zack’s uniform, demonstrating that it was visibly loose. “You’ve had a rough stretch. First Angeal and then your friend Cloud, but you have to take care of yourself.”

“I’m fine.” The two friends lingered in silence until their breathing evened out. “It was his father you know, that killed him.”

“I saw that. It’s fucked up,” Kunsel said. “I’m keeping an eye on the case, talked to Daniels yesterday. It was nice of you to give Ms. Strife a PHS and keep the bill payed. She harasses that poor MP every day. Lady is a pit bull.”

“She wants justice for her kid,” Zack said. “I think I might go see if there are any new missions.”

Kunsel shook his head and rolled to his feet. “I have it on good authority that there are no good missions at the mission desk; some workaholic cleaned them out over the last couple of weeks. Why don’t you just do something that isn’t hunting monsters for Shinra or running circles in this room? If you don’t want breakfast, get out of this building and clear your head.”

“I might try sleeping again, now that I’m tired,” Zack hedged. He had been avoiding Aerith, he could admit it, to himself anyway. She deserved a boyfriend who took her on dates and made her happy. He’d come to her for support and to grieve so much lately, he just wanted the knot of tension in his chest to ease so that he could go to her and maybe smile and mean it. They’d exchanged texts and even a call or two but he hadn’t been down to see her since before his trip to Nibelheim.

“You know Aerith thinks I’d make a good florist.” Zack smiled wistfully, just thinking about her. “She may have forgotten about my black thumbs.”

“The buster sword would be a little awkward for floral arrangement, but you’re good with people. That’s half the battle in retail.” Kunsel frowned speculatively as though Zack were sincerely contemplating a career change. “You been down to see her lately?”

“I’ve been busy,” Zack answered.

“Right, you’ve been so busy that the rest of the SOLDIERs can’t get a mission for themselves. Why don’t you go see her? It might make you feel better.”

“It’s not her job to make me feel better.”

“It’s not my job either, but here we are,” Kunsel said. “How am I doing?”

“I’ll be honest, the running wasn’t a bad move. If you really wanted to cheer me up, you might have let me win.” Zack let Kunsel pull him to his feet and smiled, a more genuine expression than he would have mustered a few minutes ago.

“I know you’re thinking about sleep, but there are dozens of piping hot sausage rolls coming out of the ovens downstairs right now. I can almost smell them. Eat breakfast with me?”

“Yeah, I’m cooled down enough to eat.”

A few hundred feet below them, Aerith worked quietly away tending the patch of flowers growing in her church. Occasionally people would wander through the doors, curious or lost. So she wasn’t terribly surprised when the door creaked and someone walked in. Like a normal person might peek around their curtains before opening the door, Aerith looked at her guest with the sense that heard the planet, and she saw something she hadn’t glimpsed since she was a girl hiding in her mother’s skirt.

“Oh my.” Aerith stood, wide-eyed with shock. A short blond with very spikey yellow hair had walked into her church, a silver spear on his back. Every living thing shone with a unique light to Aerith. Her biological mother shone brighter than anything else she had ever encountered, until now. The man in front of her crackled with energy, it danced over him like electricity. “Who exactly are you?”

“I’m Rain, the last of the Lightning. You look like your mother, Ifalna, if I’m not mistaken.” 

“You’re not mistaken. I’m Aerith. My mom…” 

“Died years ago, I know. She said goodbye to me on her way off to the lifestream.” The stranger strode closer, his expression serious. “I need your help. The goddess saw fit to open a shortcut so I could find you.”

“Well, nice as that is, you shouldn’t have come here. I’m watched, not constantly, but most of the time. You very well may have been seen already. You don’t want Shinra to know there’s another Cetra running around. They’d hunt you like they hunted my mother.”

“Hunted her and killed her.” Rain looked disgusted. “They might find me a harder creature to hunt than your defenseless mother. I’m sorry that I wasn’t here to protect her. When Lool and Herzot went their separate ways, I couldn’t stay with them both. Then when Herzot passed, she’d never had children, and I never could find Lool or her child Ifalna again. I swear, I never stopped looking.” 

“You don’t owe me anything. We’re both Cetra, but I’m okay. I have an understanding with the turks. I don’t leave Midgar, and they don’t lock me in their laboratory. I don’t need you upsetting the apple cart by picking fights.” Aerith propped her hands on her hips firmly. “Why don’t you explain exactly what you need help with?”

“It’s my son. I try very hard to hear and understand the goddess.” Rain crouched down and touched the ground near Aerith’s flowers. “But I struggle. The ritual seemed so clear, perfect, but my son isn’t okay. The ritual hurt him, and I can’t let him die. The goddess sent me to you, a more lovely natural earth Cetra I’ve never seen. You can fix him. It’s in your blood and bones. Please?”

Aerith frowned at the man and his tears that hadn’t stopped since he first mentioned his son. “Walk me through what happened. Start at the beginning. I’ll try to help if I can.”

“Of course, I met my son for the first time thirty seven days ago. You’ll think I sound irrational, but I love him already, more than my own life.”


	10. Purple Rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next few past interludes are very dark. You know things did not end well for the Cetra. We are talking near-GENOCIDE levels of dark for the next few flashbacks.

_It was an impressive web of containment spells that Kohla and her student cast around the perimeter of the meteorite’s crater. They took turns as they worked their way slowly down to the center, one casting while the other passively restored mana. They only moved forward when the softly glowing barriers had been completed over another thin swath of frozen ground. It took most of the morning for their spiraling cone of safety to finally reach their goal, an oddly perfect purple-black sphere._

_Kohla gestured wordlessly for Eaddy to retreat back up and out of the containment zone they’d built. The two women settled around their fire to discuss the next step. “There’s no perfectly safe way to attempt communication,” Kohla said. “One of us will have to stay back to close containment and report if things don’t go well. Do you have any thoughts? Anything you think might make the process more efficient or safer?”_

_Eaddy still wasn’t sure if she would be probing the entity or playing monitor and she wasn’t completely sure which job she wanted. “I was thinking when the communicator goes in, they could maybe add a final layer to the containment, like the biological magnet work Vera has been developing. The human settlement that she likes to mentor had an outbreak that contaminated their water. She was able to make the contagion attract to itself and managed to purify their aquifer. It was brilliant. It wouldn’t be any stronger than what we’ve placed, but just another layer that might help, if it’s infectious anyway.”_

_“I’ve read a bit about her work.” Kohla nodded, “I like the idea. Can you show me how to lay the spell?”_

_Eaddy had worked a little with everyone while waiting for a mentor to claim her and that diversity of experience had its benefits. “I can lay the spell, but I don’t know if I understand it well enough to teach it.”_

_“That’s okay. Let’s try,” Kohla said._

_In the end Kohla needed only a little instruction to master the biological magnetism spell, but her castings lacked the power of her student’s efforts. “You have a natural touch when spelling living things, but I’m not sending you down to make contact with our visitor. I’ll go in myself. You know the protocols for contact with an unknown biological entity?”_

_“Reviewed them the moment you invited me out here,” Eaddy confirmed. “I have the checklist in mind.”_

_“It’s a very reasonable checklist. Anyone could read the checklist and follow it. I brought you because of your nature. Follow your instincts. If you feel it going wrong, forget the checklist, activate the red ward and quarantine yourself until the second team comes to check on us.”_

_Her mentor had just given her an incinerate everything order. “Doesn’t sound like a fire family way to approach a problem, going with my gut. Aren’t we supposed to be the family of reason and the scientific method. The family of logic?”_

_“We’re also the explorers. I’m less of a scientist than a traveler, and this moment feels like a precipice.” Both women looked toward the visitor and its alien but very much alive glimmer of purple light. “I trust your judgement Eaddy. You burn it if it feels truly wrong and don’t worry about me when you do it.”_

_“What if it feels wrong already? This isn’t making contact with humanity or coming to an understanding with a chocobo. Maybe we should just burn it without trying to communicate?” Eaddy suggested, feeling cowardly for even suggesting such a violent, unprovoked act._

_“It’s alive,” Kohla said, with a small smile. “While it is okay to be afraid—xenophobia is coded into our essence, a survival instinct that you must work to master. We won’t attack unprovoked. We will not kill a living being unknown.”_

_“I understand.” It still frightens me, went unsaid._

_Standing just barely inside the glowing barrier they had constructed, Eaddy watched her mentor carefully pick her way to the center. She listened and waited as the calm older women began the cautious, gentle process of attempted communication. Reaching out, not with language but with her mind and life, touching the visitor, knowing it and sharing herself._

_Eaddy shuddered and very nearly fainted as the first wave of wrongness hit her. She didn’t immediately activate the incineration, hesitating and horrified. Kohla had collapsed and the the black sphere had shattered into a million droplets. Her instinct to help her mentor overrode the orders she had been given and Eaddy was charging forward when she felt the first warning thrum from the planet._

_Contamination._

_Infection._

_Still lying on the ground and twitching, Kohla dismantled the incineration spell-ward with a careless flick of her wrist and began unweaving the rest of the containment trap immediately._

_Desperation flowed directly into her mind from the planet itself, and Eaddy knew she had to contain the invader. She cast the biological magnetism spell with greater power and skill than her mentor had managed only minutes earlier. “Stay put,” Eaddy hissed. The alien droplets merged seamlessly into Kohla, whether by their own nature or because of Eaddy’s spell, they were now contained in a single host._

_Eyes glowing a dull menacing red, Kohla regained her feet and strode forward. Eaddy staggered back a step and her hand found the fire materia she had been using to keep their campfire going in her pocket. The alien was stretching its way free of their attempt at containment, settling into its host, owning her mind and body. It wasn’t as powerful as the flare trap they’d built, but Eaddy brandished her weapon and cast firaga, pouring all her mana into the effort._

_Kohla screamed, her voice changed and harsh. Her screams went on far longer than they should, but Eaddy didn’t stop casting even when her mana was gone, desperately burning through the spark of lifestream in her body to try and stop the demon she could feel, still alive and fighting to free itself._

_Pushed past her limits, the fire material tumbled from her now lax fingers and Eaddy blacked out._

* * *

If he hadn’t been struggling to find real sleep lately, Zack might not have slept through the first three calls from Aerith. It wasn’t until the fourth call that he was groping around on his bedside table and peering blearily at the caller ID. Before it could go to voicemail, he answered. “Good morning, beautiful.”

“Finally! Are you off somewhere saving the world? Please say you’re in Midgar. Are you in Midgar?” Aerith asked.

“I’m in Midgar.” All sleepiness vanished at Aerith’s agitated tone. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine, but I might have a problem. I have a visitor here at the church that I think you may know. Your friend from Nibelheim, that had trouble in Mideel, his name was Cloud, right?” Aerith asked.

“Yes.” Zack tried to imagine who might be bothering Aerith about Cloud, someone she’d never actually met, and couldn’t fathom a connection. “Who’s there?”

“He says his name is Rain.”

Aerith most definitely said more after giving him her visitor’s name, but Zack had squeezed his phone and the reinforced military grade device had crumpled like a cheap plastic toy. He stared at the ruined device for a half moment, horrified, before he was moving. Boots, clothes, sword, and Zack was running. 

Gods, he hadn’t even gotten a chance to warn her. 

No time for trains, Zack would have jumped off the edge of the plate if it would have gotten him to Aerith faster, but he knew the best path to sector five was through the motor pool and he raced past the line of personnel waiting their turn to borrow a vehicle. 

With no regard for the man and his clipboard, trying to get his attention, Zack took the key fob for a SOLDIERs only motorcycle.

“You have to sign that out!”

“Fine me,” Zack snapped, without breaking stride.

* * *

“Huh,” Aerith said. “Zack?” She redialed but the phone went straight to voicemail. Maybe his battery had died? He would call her back or head down, maybe? Stupid PHS. Stupid boyfriend. 

Her visitor had settled next to the flowers, both hands flat against the soil, waiting for her to make her calls and decide if she would help him. His eyes were closed and she knew he was listening to the planet. She’d spent a lot of time in a very similar position. “It’s a good spot,” Aerith offered, best spot I’ve found in Midgar. You can really hear there.”

“It’s nothing compared to Amie, but for this dying hole of a city, it’s excellent,” Rain agreed without opening his eyes. “I’m not sure how you bear it, living here.”

“It’s where I was born,” Aerith explained, with a nonchalant shrug. “It’s home.” 

“It’s a tragedy,” Rain said. “Did you reach your friend? Have you decided if you’re going to help my son?”

Aerith refrained from countering that the real tragedy of the situation had started at Rain’s spear tip. “Of course I’m going to help, but I need a cover. Disappearing for even a little while would make Shinra come for me, and I’m not anxious for that.”

“They’d never touch you,” Rain said, grimly. “I’ve had nothing to protect for a long time, but I haven’t forgotten how.”

“Stand down, Mr. Lightning, sir. Give my friend a minute. He’s going to call back and then we’ll go see about your son. Cloud has been holding on for weeks. The planet has him. She isn’t going to give up in an hour while I make sure my home can still be my home after the endeavor.”

Rain nodded, but he very transparently wasn’t happy with the delay. “In an hour, we go.”

“We’ll talk about it,” Aerith hedged.

* * *

Ignoring all speed limits and rules of the expressway, Zack took full advantage of his SOLDIER reflexes to weave in and out of traffic. He couldn’t imagine why Rain would seek out Aerith of all people, but if he had anything to say about it, the bastard would never surprise anyone again. 

It was impossible not to imagine Aerith injured and trapped. What if he was too late?

Zack squeezed the gas lever, pushing for more speed. It was ridiculously dangerous not to abandon the bike for foot travel once he was in the slums properly, but Zack risked it, weaving through the rough roads and various pedestrians until he had to abandon the bike or start mowing people down. With a deceptively simple controlled crash he was able to vault himself clear and hit the ground running. 

He had to be in time, Zack prayed as the church came into view. Not daring to slow down, he almost knocked the heavy wooden doors off their hinges. His sword was in his hand in a moment, and Zack stumbled to an abrupt stop. 

The man who killed his friend, Rain, stood calm and loose, watching him. If the monster wasn’t standing elbow to elbow with Aerith, he’d already be in two pieces. “Aerith, he’s dangerous. Step away.”

“You came,” Aerith said. “Rain, would you put your hands up or something. Show him you aren’t going to attack anyone. If you want my help, you’ll put your hands up.”

Ignoring her request, Rain gently pushed her a step away from him and drew his spear.

“Boys, no,” Aerith said, but the men were moving before she could properly protest. They practically flew at each other moving so fast her eyes struggled to follow their battle. It was obvious quickly that Zack was stronger. Every time their weapons connected, the smaller Cetra staggered a bit, but Rain was far quicker and none of Zack’s attacks hit him properly.

Both men were holding nothing back, apparently trying to kill one another. Aerith took out her staff, and judiciously cast cure any time one of them seemed overly injured.

“Aerith, sweetie, I appreciate the support, but you’re healing the murderer too,” Zack called, without splitting his focus from Rain’s lightning fast counters. 

“I know what I’m doing.” Aerith circled up the stairs a few steps, trying to stay out of the line of fire. “Rain isn’t the enemy.” Punctuating the comment with a pair of cures, one for each fighter, Aerith added, “Zack isn’t an enemy either, Rain. Can we have a time out? Please?”

Zack had warded against a couple of basic status effects. He couldn’t be stopped or put to sleep, but there were only so many materia slots to spare. The slippery maniac managed to zap him with a silence and a poison but the nail in the coffin was the slow. In short order his buster sword was across the room and a silver spear was jammed into his throat, but not through it. “If you move a millimeter, I’ll pin you to the wall through your spine,” Rain promised calmly.

“Do not hurt him!” Aerith shoved the spear aside and set herself between the two men. “Can you purify the status effects? Esuna isn’t working. What kind of evil poison doesn’t come off with esuna?”

“If you insist, but your friend is dangerous.” A shimmer of green rinsed away the poison and silence, conspicuously leaving the slow status, and Rain kept his spear at the ready.

“I’m dangerous?” Zack growled, with his newly restored voice. He pulled Aerith behind him, desperate to keep her safe. “You murdered your own son. If you think for one second I’m going to let you get away with that, or hurt anyone else, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Rain swelled up, proud to have fought the Shinra dog to a victory, but it wasn’t like he could fight a dozen like him at once. Aerith’s disdain of his protection made more sense if Shinra had many like this one at their disposal. “How long have the humans been toying with the calamity? Pandemonium runs in his veins. You can’t pretend you didn’t notice?”

Aerith shrugged, letting Zack stand in front of her for now. “He’s a SOLDIER. Is the purple light pandemonium? Then sure I noticed.”

“And you called him here to help you? He’s diseased.” 

“Not contagious though,” Aerith said. Zack shot her a very confused look over his shoulder, and she squeezed his hand, a silent promise to discuss it later. She stepped resolutely back between the two men. “Look, we are all on the same team right this second. Zack, I have good news, your friend Cloud is alive.” 

“There is literally no way that’s true,” Zack started, but Aerith waved him off. 

“Stabbed, electrocuted, fed to a scary sounding tree? Rain admitted it all. Cloud is not dead,” Aerith asserted, confidently. 

Zack scoffed, “And you just believe his story? He tricked Cloud out to this tree and killed him. Now he’s trying to lure in his next victim.”

“I know you saw it go down on video and it sounds crazy that anyone could survive all that, but Rain isn’t lying. I’d know. It’s a Cetra thing. Rain here is a Cetra, an ancient. You can’t fake that either, not to another Cetra. We can see each other. It’s distinctive.” Aerith grabbed Zack’s hand and squeezed again, trying to communicate without words. “Don’t trust Rain. He isn’t trustworthy. He’s made terrible mistakes. He hurt his son. Trust me instead.”

That Rain might have anything in common with Aerith, even something as esoteric as sharing some DNA sequences was almost unfathomable to Zack, but he trusted her and if she said it was so, he believed her. “Okay, how is Cloud alive? Why did this ancient hurt him in the first place?” Zack asked.

“This ancient was trying to help. If your child were blind and deaf and you could help him see and hear, wouldn’t you?” Rain said. “It was a simple ritual that didn’t go as planned.”

“No shit,” Zack agreed. “If Cloud is alive, how do we help him? Is he still at the tree in Mideel? I can rip the damn tree up by the roots if necessary.” 

“You will not touch Amie,” Rain spat. He brandished his spear more aggressively. “Aerith is all that’s needed. She asked you here to help cover her absence to her jailers. She likes this wilted box of a garden prison and doesn’t want to be shoved back in a less comfortable cage for helping me and my son.”

Aerith half expected Zack to dive across the room, grab his sword and resume trying to cut Rain into tiny pieces, but in a show of remarkable restraint he crossed his arms and laughed. “If you think I’m leaving you alone with Aerith for a moment, you’re crazier than I thought you were.” Zack turned a less disdainful look to his girl. “Tell me what you need exactly? Is this a day trip? Do you need a week? Are we traveling to Mideel? Tell me what the plan is and I’ll figure out how to square it with Shinra.” 

Aerith wilted a bit pushing her hands together nervously. “I’m a local florist, not a mystical healer. Rain here thinks I’ll have a grand epiphany if I just take a look at the problem. Supposedly it’s in my bones?”

“No plan, got it.” Zack had to fight back the instinct to throw Aerith over his shoulder and race back up to the plate, far away from maniacal fathers and odd Cetra biology. If Cloud was alive, didn’t he owe it to him to try and save him? “Fine, we’ll figure it out. Can I borrow your phone? I might have accidentally destroyed mine.”


	11. Diagnosis

_A small healthy fire burned inside a quarantine ward. Curled in on herself, Eaddy rested her head on her knees and rocked herself gently forward and back. She couldn’t remember retreating to the quarantine ward or replenishing the fire. She could remember casting firaga on her mentor until the woman burned completely away. Goddess, she killed Kohla. Had she successfully killed the invader? Eaddy dug her fingers into the frozen ground, looking for reassurance from the planet but it felt like there were bees swarming under her skin, buzzing so that she couldn’t hear the goddess._

_Was this her punishment for killing her mentor? The planet wouldn’t speak to her now? Eaddy sobbed, disoriented and ashamed._

_The second team would want to know what happened, but Eaddy couldn’t imagine speaking it aloud. She should write a record, a clinical scientific endeavor. That was protocol. Write a record. Eaddy staggered to her feet, looking for her satchel. She found it inside the temporary structure Kohla had built, but she never started her written record._

_Her hands were wrong._

_All living beings had a unique glow. Her own glow was more familiar than the nose on her face, soft orange with a green thread growing throughout. That glow was different now, pale orange but the green had shifted purple, that same malignant black-purple of the invader. Eaddy keened, staring hopelessly at her hands._

_The invader buzzed under her skin, angry purple bees, whispering to her._

_She should stay in the quarantine._

_How had she left it?_

_The bees buzzing under her skin buzzed louder between her ears, making it hard to think. The quarantine wasn’t intact. It was broken, as broken as their containment. All of it was broken._

_What would Kohla tell her to do? Follow the checklist? Follow her instincts? Eaddy couldn’t remember the checklist and the bees had eaten everything under her skin. She couldn’t obey them. The buzzing was so loud. Eaddy covered her ears and screamed, her voice strange and foreign to her ears._

* * *

_When the second team came to check on Kohla and her student, they found an abandoned, snow-covered camp. The team leader, Reed, used a broad scan to light up the scene, the multitude of broken spell wards and traps glowing like a silent road map. “Find their records if you can. I see no evidence of life, but we need to know what happened.”_

* * *

Gathered in the sector five slums, a small serious group of Cetra, SOLDIERs and a honey bee dancer reviewed their slightly complicated plan. Kunsel tossed a new phone to Zack and nodded to his friend, indicating that things had been arranged. 

“Okay guys so let’s review the operation. Kunsel has set things up with the mission desk so that I’ve got a mission to Costa Del Sol. As far as Shinra knows, Aerith is coming with me to make it a working vacation, a date. Kunsel is going to cover my mission.” Zack pointed to the dancer. “Wynona, here is going to be doing an Aerith impersonation.” The dancer waved, already wearing one of Aerith’s sundresses with a scarf and a pair of dark glasses. “Do we know which turks will be stalking the vacation?”

Kunsel shrugged. “Can’t be sure but I think it’s going to be Rude and Reno based on their typical rotations. Neither of them are terribly subtle so I think we’ll be fine if we keep a low profile and this doesn’t draw out too long.”

“I’ve never been to Costa Del Sol. Seems a shame to spend the whole trip locked in a hotel,” Wynona complained. 

“It’s a nice hotel and you’re being compensated well to enjoy room service and a hot tub. Try to be professional about it,” Kunsel said, sternly. 

“I am a professional,” Wynona agreed with a smirk. 

“Great, team Costa Del Sol, you have a transport to catch,” Zack said. “Thanks for the assist.”

Kunsel smiled and lifted a hand in farewell. “It’s not a problem. Being your friend keeps things interesting.”

Once Kunsel and his dancer friend were gone, Zack turned to Rain with a stern, flat expression. “Tell me about this short cut again.”

“It’s like one of your expressways but far more efficient. There used to be thousands of them. Amie opened a new path just to get Aerith to Mideel to help my son. We’ll be back on the island in minutes,” Rain said. “Of course, we should have been back hours ago, all this time wasted to appease Shinra.”

“Says the man with the spear,” Zack said, dryly. “You’d think you’d be a little more damn contrite and accommodating considering you’re the reason Cloud is injured and in need of help.”

Aerith couldn’t stop the boys from hating each other, but she linked arms with Zack, making it far less likely that he would draw his sword. “I’ve never tried to take anyone through a shortcut. There are a couple of little ones around Midgar that I’ve used from time to time,” Aerith said. “Rain says he can pull you through, no problem.”

“Yeah, I can pull you through. Doubt you’ll enjoy the sensation. I’ve been told it’s always uncomfortable for humans, but it’s not actually harmful.” Rain smiled, more than a little smugly. “Of course you could take one of your human transports down while Aerith and I take the Cetra path.”

“I’ll be fine.” 

Zack did not enjoy the shortcut. Rain gripped his right arm and stepped into nothing. Zack thought he might suffocate, unable to drawn a breath, it felt like his face was covered in plastic. Before he could properly panic they burst through the invisible membrane and were standing amongst a forest of towering redwood trees. His stomach lurched and though they were on solid ground again, Zack bent double and vomited.

Aerith’s gentle touch on his back reminded him that he needed to keep it together, and Zack fought to get a handle on his nausea. “That might be my least favorite way to travel, and I hitched a ride on a manure truck when I left Gongaga.”

“It was fast though,” Aerith said. “You okay?”

Zack nodded and took quick stock of their environment. No monsters, aside from the blue-eyed blond, and Aerith seemed to be fine. His girl had a slight tendency toward agoraphobia, growing up under the plate the way she had. “I’m okay. Are you okay?”

“Well it’s not the steel sky, but it’s still pretty closed in, so yeah, I’m dealing,” Aerith said. “Rain, where’s Cloud? Lead the way.”

“It’s just through here,” Rain led them out of the old growth forest and to a gargantuan tree. As tall as any of the redwoods, its trunk was wider than a Midgar support pillar. The top part of the tangled roots was literally twice as tall as Aerith.

“Okay, that’s a big tree.” Beyond the physical appearance, Aerith was trying not to be overwhelmed by the glow of the lifestream. The voice of the planet was so strong here, that she almost wanted to turn around and hide. 

“You should take off your boots,” Rain said, already half finished removing his.

“Wait,” Zack commanded them both. He drew his buster sword and following the tiny whir of a mechanical device, he smashed an automated camera into a million pieces. He found three more cameras in short order and dispatched them. “We don’t need an audience.”

“That’s for sure,” Aerith agreed. 

Zack went to unbuckle his boots but Rain shook his head. “You won’t need to worry about your boots, SOLDIER. As much as I’d love to watch Amie show you her hungry side, you’re diseased. I don’t know what would happen if we fed her a pandemonium tainted snack.”

“Okay, I’m getting a little tired of the diseased comments. I’m healthy as a horse. And if that tree isn’t safe for me, then in what universe do you think I’m going to let you and your very sharp spear go out there with Aerith alone?” Zack pointed to the broken cameras. “I had a front row seat to I-stabbed-my-son-and-fed-him-to-a-tree the movie.”

“Fine, we’ll both wait here,” Rain said, taking a step back. “Aerith won’t need my help anyway. The tree won’t hurt her. She’s invited.”

“Uh, okay.” Aerith shifted from one bare foot to the other. “Could you maybe point me to approximately where Cloud is?”

Rain gestured forward. “This isn’t Midgar. There are no sign posts. Just climb up and walk out. Let her tell you what she needs and where to go.”

“Seriously? Letting the tree lead the way is what got Cloud stabbed. Am I wrong?” Zack ran his hands through his hair and shook his head. “Aerith, I want Cloud to be okay, I do, but not at the cost of your safety. I just don’t think this is a good idea. That tree eats people when it feels like it. If I can’t be out there with you, protecting you, this is too dangerous. We need to figure out another way forward.”

“We did not come all this way to just give up. How about we start slow? Introduce ourselves?” Aerith reached a hand out to carefully touch one of the roots, and her knees immediately went weak. It wasn’t that she doubted Rain’s assurances that the planet would be easier to hear from his sacred tree but the magnitude of clarity was shocking and almost painfully loud. She made herself hold on until the contact wasn’t quite so painful and then she let go. 

She could feel Zack hovering at her side, vibrating with concern. “Aerith? What happened?”

“Just saying, hello.” Aerith smiled, still shaky on her feet. 

“Warned you it wouldn’t be like Midgar,” Rain said. “Did she speak to you?”

“She tried.” Aerith put a hand on Zack’s chest and just took a few steadying breaths. “It’s fine, Zack. I’m fine.”

“What did she say?” Zack asked. 

“It was too much, too loud. Cloud is alive and she wants me to come see him, that much was clear.” The roots had begun to move, to twist into an artificial and very distinct shape. Stairs had formed so that Aerith wound have a simple climb. “Thanks lady, Aerith said, hand hovering but not quite touching the nearest root.”

“She’s happy to see you,” Rain said. “You’ll hear her better than me. I’ve never heard well, even for a lightning. Just please save him.”

“Can you ask her to let me come with?” Zack asked. 

Looking more confident than she had since claiming to just be a florist back in Midgar, Aerith smiled. “You can’t help with this part, Zack. I’ll be safe though. She has a few things to say and needs someone to listen. Wish me luck?”

“All the luck.” Zack kissed her, holding on so that she couldn’t step away just yet. “Are you sure about this?”

“I’m sure.” Aerith pulled free of Zack, and stepped cautiously up onto the tree a single step. She spun, hands on her hips. “Both of you play nice, no fighting, I mean it,” Aerith commanded as though she were addressing naughty grade schoolers and not grown men that sincerely hated each other.

Rain nodded and settled cross-legged on the ground. “Of course, I wouldn’t dream of harming your friend.” 

Zack smiled tensely at Aerith without deigning to glance at Rain. “Be safe. You say the word and I cut the tree down, okay?”

Rain casually twirled his spear and settled it in his lap, a silent response to Zack’s threat against the sacred tree, but neither man made any move to restart their physical brawl. 

“I’ve got this,” Aerith said, realizing that part of the confidence she felt was wafting up from the tree, silent, emotion-flavored encouragement. The tree, Amie, had stopped shouting, seemingly realizing that Aerith could hear her without the extreme volume. The roots contorted ahead of her, making a smooth, simple path, and Aerith followed, each step revealing a new image, a new concept, a new song. 

At the end of the path, the roots had shifted into a very comfortable-looking, reclined chair. “I’m trusting you here,” Aerith said. “Rain trusts you and my mother, Ifalna said you were our ally when I was a little girl. If this is a trap, there will be consequences.” Aerith let all her memories of SOLDIERs and their feats of inhuman strength flow freely. She let her imagination paint a picture of Zack ripping Amie apart by the roots if the tree hurt any of his friends.

Disgust. Rejection. Disdain. 

Aerith thought the tree might send her away for her warning but acceptance came next and the seat remained. “Let’s do this then, Amie.”

She settled lightly into the chair and the tree embraced her, twining gently around her hands and feet, vining lovingly around her ears and cradling her head. Aerith exhaled slowly and closed her eyes. Images and sounds appeared in her mind, a steady sequence of concepts and emotions, a narrative that wasn’t linear or logical. But Aerith let it flow, accepting that the meaning wouldn’t necessarily come instantly. 

She listened.

* * *

For the first hour, Zack paced and watched, satisfied that he could see Aerith and with his enhancements even hear the steady whisper of her breath and the calm metronome of her heart. By the third hour, he had managed to climb the closest conifer, despite the fact that there weren’t any branches below fifty feet, for a nice bird’s eye view of the dangerous tree and Aerith’s position amongst its creepily mobile roots. 

The sun was setting just over ten hours in and Zack had resumed pacing, unable to stop moving, barely restraining himself from throwing caution to the wind and just fetching Aerith back.

“You’re not a Cetra or even properly human. If you touch Amie, the response would be unpredictable, but likely violent. Aerith and Cloud could be damaged in the fallout, so stop pacing, stop twitching and be patient,” Rain said without opening his eyes. 

“You have no idea what I was thinking. Oh and fuck you, I’m human.” Zack refused to think about Angeal’s proclamation about SOLDIER being a den of monsters. 

Rain shrugged. “I guess humanity could be a state of mind? Physically, you stopped being human when you let someone inject pandemonium into your veins. Don’t get me wrong, Aerith is attached to you. Her opinion makes me think you might at least be sane, but I spent a lifetime putting rabid dogs like you down. I was born for no other purpose.” Rain sucked a deep breath and actually opened his eyes to stare at Zack. “A human aura is dim but always painted in shades of soft yellow or white light. Pandemonium distorts everything it infects with a malignant, rotten purple. You glow with it, but you don’t stink of the rot. Maybe it’s still sleeping? Have you heard its voice yet? Does it whisper? The newly infected sometimes called it bees in their head, buzzing and whispering.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Zack said. 

“Still dormant then. That’s good for you. We were never really able to kill it, just consolidate the problem and render it dormant.” Rain laughed humorlessly. “I know Aerith said you aren’t contagious and she’s the natural healer here, but wouldn’t you regret infecting her if she’s wrong?”

“Forgive me if I don’t take advice on my health from the man that stabbed his child on instructions from a tree.” Under his bravado, Zack thought of Genesis’ degradation and Angeal’s suicide. Despite himself, he wondered if Rain wasn’t speaking some version of the truth. “How about we wait quietly?”

“If you can sit still, I can shut up,” Rain agreed.

* * *

When Amie finally released Aerith from its hold, it wasn’t nearly done communicating, but there was only so much information a lone Cetra could accept at once, and the tree most definitely didn’t want to hurt her. 

Armed with new knowledge, Aerith knelt and gently parted the roots covering Cloud’s unconscious but breathing form. He wasn’t a big guy and the tree was willing to help, so Aerith felt pretty confident that she could get Cloud down to the clearing where Rain and Zack were waiting. It wasn’t like she could call either of the men over to assist. Zack would sooner let a raging coeurl over than send Rain alone and Amie was not going to let Zack touch a root of her body. She was barely tolerating his hovering so close as it was.

Aerith pulled under Cloud’s arms and the roots swelled with her like a helpful wave. Once they got going, all she really had to do was keep a hand on Cloud to steer and make sure she stepped lively to keep up. 

Aerith was pleased to find Zack and Rain waiting unbloodied in passive aggressive silence. Zack noticed their arrival first and she could tell he was relieved to see her and her cargo. He grinned and waved. Aerith stepped lightly down the root-steps and waited as the tree extended its roots out cradling Cloud, almost like a hand returning a delicate prize. 

Rain rushed forward, hands ghosting over Cloud’s face, looking for a sign of consciousness. “He isn’t awake?”

“Not yet. Amie is keeping him out. I’m going to need you to take over for her. You’re the man of unbreakable status effects, yeah? Don’t let him wake up,” Aerith ordered.

“Don’t let him wake up? I brought you here to fix this, not keep him asleep forever.” Rain was crying, petting at Cloud hopelessly. “I ruined him, didn’t I. The ritual was wrong and you can’t help.”

“Get it together,” Aerith said. “Is this the face of a girl without a plan? You executed the ritual perfectly. Not saying doing it was the right thing, but you didn’t do it wrong. Cloud just happens to be a little older than the target patient.” 

Zack was looking rather pleased to just see his friend breathing. “Rain keeps him asleep, then what? What’s wrong with him? No burns, no spear holes, he looks fine. His uniform is being held together by two threads and a promise. He’s going to be okay though?”

“If I have anything to say about it, he’s going to be fine. I just got the world’s most compressed crash course in Cetra biology, healing, and rituals. Rain you performed a perfectly executed ritual to rewrite your kid’s biology that the Cetra historically only ever used on babies or toddlers.” 

“If I did it correctly, why can’t he wake up?” Rain asked.

“In a nutshell, the brain is plastic, flexible, when it’s young. It adjusts to even really big changes without much fuss. We get older, the plasticity goes way down. Cloud’s brain isn’t adjusting to the new information very well. Every time Amie tries to wake him up, he has a seizure.”

“That sounds terrible,” Zack said. “What’s the plan?”

“Rain is going to keep Cloud asleep while we move him somewhere a lot quieter. This spot is the loudest place on Gaia for a Cetra. It’s like the Gold Saucer during chocobo racing championship week. Cacophony doesn’t quite cover it.” Aerith lightly patted one of the roots. “No offense girl, but you’re loud. Cloud needs a quiet spot and probably some anticonvulsants and a little time for his brain to adjust.”

“Is Midgar quiet for a Cetra,” Zack suggested hopefully. 

“Are you kidding?” Aerith asked. “The sound of those reactors, the smell of the mako? You can’t hear the planet so well, but it isn’t quiet. We need peaceful.”

Rain wiped his tears and seemed to regain some of his composure at Aerith’s clearly stated diagnosis and plan. “We should take him to Nibelheim.”


	12. Well Laid Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been averaging two chapters a week since I started posting this story (kind of a break neck pace for me). It may slow a bit as we get closer to the ending. Don’t plan to drop slower than a chapter a week, but you never know.

_The Cetra had cultivated Gaia like a garden for centuries upon centuries. The calamity fell and in only a few days, that garden was transformed. The eastern continent was lost completely, everything and everyone tainted. The animals and Cetra mutated into vile, vicious creatures, the plants that didn’t whither and die turned to poisonous weeds. The western continent was so contaminated that all the remaining healthy Cetra had fled to their last stronghold, the sacred tree’s island._

_Rain wasn’t sure what he had really expected their life’s battle to be, but fighting an extraterrestrial plague, most definitely hadn’t entered his mind. While he struggled to find words for his frustrations, Lor and Ollio were better at verbalizing their feelings._

_“I wish they would all stop arguing and let us fight,” Lor complained. “How long before that thing finds a way past the spell barriers keeping it from infecting the lifestream? Then what will we do?”_

_The brothers were sitting back to back, leaning against each other, casual intimacy that calmed them and comforted them as the battle of their life loomed. “Sure, let’s dive in and fight. We all get infected killing the diseased mutants and will anyone be any better off?” Ollio asked. “Grandma water Cetra makes a scary mutant monster, I hate to imagine what a Lightning in its prime would turn into. You prepared to kill little brother Rain here if he gets infected? You prepared to kill me?”_

_“Weren’t you listening, we’re infection resistant? Lurking and waiting here is pointless. They need to choose a path forward and let us fight before it’s too late,” Lor growled. “There won’t be anything to save if we don’t act.”_

_“We don’t know that theory is correct,” Ollio countered. “Some snooty earth Cetra tells you that your difficulty hearing the planet was some grand design to make you infection resistant, and you take it as gospel truth?”_

_“I think the theory is right,” Rain offered. “The planet doesn’t make mistakes. Why would she make so many lightning that can’t hear her properly unless there is a reason?”_

_“Thank you, Rain, I couldn’t have said it better,” Lor said._

_“Two vs one doesn’t make you both right,” Ollio replied._

_Rain could feel Lor tensing and knew his brother had lost his temper entirely. “You know, I’d ask the planet to clarify the situation for us, so we don’t have to take the snooty earth Cetra’s word for it. But I can’t HEAR her well enough,” Lor roared._

_“Gentlemen.” Ged could fill a single word with so much disdain that Rain felt seven again and he knew his brothers felt the same. The three of them rose and turned to their leader. Lor was still red-faced, from anger or embarrassment was anyone’s guess. “We’ve chosen a path forward. Split the youngsters into the balanced units we train in. We will begin cauterizing this wound at first light.”_

_“They’ve found a way to purge the infection? How do we restrain the infected Cetra for treatment?” Ollio asked, quickly. “Will we need to bring a healer or a team of healers into the battle? How will we protect them and ourselves from infection?”_

_Ged didn’t answer quickly. “We purge the infection by killing and burning everything. We won’t be saving any infected. The infection is barred from the lifestream thanks to some quick thinking by a pair of fire Cetra who made first contact, but that won’t last if we don’t act quickly.”_

_None of them responded to Ged’s plain spoken explanation. If they didn’t have a way to save the infected, the remaining Cetra were sending them out to euthanize millions of their unfortunate brethren. Who had made the decision to kill everything and everyone? Had they voted? Had Ged decided? Could this really be the goddess’ will?_

_“No questions?” Ged asked, expression flat and firm. They were lightning, his expression challenged. Lighting fought the battles that came without fail even if the battle was uncomfortable._

_“Burning will destroy the infection?” Rain asked, quietly. “Didn’t they say that it keeps propagating after burning?”_

_“We have a plan for that. You’re going to fight and kill and burn. The other remaining Cetra will be coordinating from Amie. The plan is to consolidate the infection into a single host and we’re going to force it into dormancy. The water and earth survivors think they can make it happen. Amie will magnify their efforts. We have a few good wind family that will get you into position to stop further spread.”_

_“Will you fight with us?” Lor asked._

_“I wish I could, but I wasn’t born into this era or for this battle. You and your younger counterparts are resistant to the infection. The planet in her great wisdom anticipated the enemy and designed you to fight it, just like she designed me and my brothers to battle Chaos.”_

_“How can we be sure that we’re immune to the plague?” Ollio asked._

_“Resistant, not immune, and if we’re wrong about that, then the planet is already lost, so let’s hope you’re resistant.” Ged pulled out a pair of thin, sharp silver daggers and nodded to his students, revealing his gift from the goddess for the first time. “My brother Fins used a staff and Havy wielded an axe. We would never have succeeded alone. The goddess built us for the fight we faced, gave us the weapons we would need, and we saved her. She built you for this fight. You have the weapons you need. You just have to rise to the occasion. You have to succeed. There’s no one else to try.”_

* * *

Getting a massive information dump from a helpful tree didn’t translate into easily retrieved knowledge. Aerith would have a hard time sitting down and writing out what she’d learned, but if she didn’t stress and let the situation lead her, the information bubbled up when it was needed. When Rain proposed Nibelheim for Cloud’s recovery point, she didn’t complain that there were surely quieter places, she knew why Rain had suggested it.

“That’s a terrible idea,” Zack said. “You just said reactors are loud. Nibelheim is a reactor town. Not to even mention Claudia Strife. How do you plan to have that conversation? Hey, so your kid is not actually dead. His father is a bit of an asshole who assaulted him and seriously injured him. We can’t actually wake him or he’ll start having a seizure. Can we borrow the guest room, by the way?” Zack shook his head. “Call me chicken, but I’d rather wait until Cloud can be conscious to let his mother know the good news.” 

“Who told Claudia that Cloud was dead?” Rain asked, still petting at his unconscious son with quiet affection. “That was cruel.”

Aerith moved smoothly between the two men. “You can’t kill him, Zack. He’s going to keep Cloud asleep for me.”

“I can cast sleep,” Zack replied grimly.

“Not like him,” Aerith said. “Besides, Rain is right, Nibelheim is perfect, maybe not right on top of the reactor, but it’s where Cloud was conceived, born, raised. The planet will remember him best there. It’s where he’ll heal most successfully.” 

“Fine, Nibelheim it is,” Zack said. “How are we getting there? The shortcut is to Midgar and frankly, that’s the wrong continent.”

“If Aerith asks, I guarantee, Amie will help. She loves her already.” Rain had climbed up onto the protrusion of roots and had begun to gently untangle Cloud’s limbs.

That was at least one sentiment he could agree with the tree on, Aerith was easy to love. “You two talk to the tree. I’m going to call and check in with Kunsel.” 

In the end, Amie opened another shortcut for them. Zack didn’t enjoy the second trip any more than the first, but this time it was Aerith that pulled him through. Heroically not vomiting, Zack took short breaths until the nausea passed. “That isn’t unpleasant for you at all?” he asked.

“It’s sort of floaty, not unpleasant.” Aerith shrugged. “This is Nibelheim?”

They were standing midway between a boarded up house and collapsed barn. “This isn’t Nibelheim,” Zack said. “Let me get the GPS up on my phone.” 

“It’s not downtown, no, but this is the right place,” Rain said. “We’re a few miles north, up the mountain. This is the Strife homestead, or it was when I passed through over a decade ago. Claudia must have moved to another homestead, or to Nibelheim proper?” Rain asked. “Hopefully the house is livable.” Shifting his son to a shoulder carry, Rain managed to get the old, slightly warped door open. “Roof seems intact.”

“We’ll get it into shape,” Aerith said, firmly. “Make sure you keep Cloud asleep. I need to forage for some herbs, we’re brewing anticonvulsant tea this afternoon.”

“Take the SOLDIER for backup. There are dragons on this mountain,” Rain ordered casually, without really sparing them any of his attention. He had found a bed to settle Cloud on and was focusing on checking the fireplace so he could get a little warmth going. The Nibel mountains in the spring were still on the frigid side. 

Zack frowned, reluctant to leave. Not for the first time, he wished that he had more backup, that he could call Angeal and just get some advice. 

“You either have to leave Cloud alone with his father or me alone with the dragons,” Aerith said. “Rain isn’t going to hurt him.”

Surrendering to the inevitable logic, Zack turned toward the woods. “Maybe not on purpose. That man does more damage accidentally, than the average tsunami.”

* * *

By the time the sun was setting, the old Strife residency was mostly clean and water proof with a roaring fire biting back against the drafts sneaking through the old building’s cracks. A truly foul smelling concoction, brain tea as Aerith had dubbed it, had been steeped and poured. 

“So, now we reverse the sleep and hope Cloud doesn’t have a seizure since it’s quieter here?” Zack asked.

“That’s the plan. Rain, can you bring him up slowly?” Aerith held the stinky tea at the ready. “Amie seemed to think you could dial him up very gradually like a dimmer switch.”

As a young man, he had always taken great pride in his special gift with status effects, and Rain had never been more thankful for that ability than today when it might play a role in saving his son. “I can go as slow as you need.”

“All right, slow as you can, every ten seconds bring him a little closer to awake. Once he’s conscious enough to drink the tea, we pause until he gets it down, then we try to go all the way to conscious. Okay?” Aerith asked.

Rain crawled into the old bed and pulled Cloud up so he was reclining against his chest. “I’m bringing him up.”

Zack kept his distance watching the process, ready to act if Aerith asked for anything. The tea was stone cold and the sun had long set when Cloud finally moved, a soft groan passing his lips. Aerith was moving the moment her patient was. “Good morning, Cloud,” Aerith said, voice pitched low and soothing. “Can you hear me?”

“I know you’re confused, but I need you to drink this medicine.” Based on Cloud’s reaction to the brain tea, it tasted at least as bad as it smelled, but between Aerith’s soothing voice’s coaxing and his father’s gentle restraint, they got the majority of the liquid down him. Zack was just happy not to see anything that looked remotely like a seizure so far.

Aerith gestured gently upwards with her hand, signaling Rain to continue waking Cloud up. Senseless groaning transitioned to confused whimpering and Cloud clamped his hands over his ears. His eyes blinked open momentarily only for him to squeeze them shut protectively. Aerith quickly removed her boots, crawled into the bed and hugged Cloud to her. Almost immediately, Cloud relaxed into her embrace, dropping his hands and actually opening his eyes. “That’s nice,” Cloud whispered. “Can someone turn off the music? It’s too loud.”

“You’ll have to get used to it,” Aerith said, gently. “It’s not so bad when you get used to it.”

Cloud frowned at that stubborn refusal. “What are you?” Glowing vibrant orange and green, the soft-spoken angel hugging him couldn’t be human, but he wasn’t afraid of her. Her touch soothed him in a way that reminded him of almost forgotten times from when he was small, warm simple safety. 

“I’m Aerith, sort of your doctor, except I’m not a real doctor, just healing inclined and I recently spent some time with a knowledgeable tree.” Aerith looked Zack’s way and half-shrugged. “Brew more tea,” she mouthed silently. 

Zack smiled and saluted her. This was almost sort of going well.

“Who else is here?” Cloud grabbed hold of Rain’s arm and struggled to turn and see the person supporting him from behind. “What the Hell are you?” The glowing person behind him was just as bright as Aerith but his light was white and crackled over him like dancing electricity. 

“It’s Rain, don’t you remember me?”

“You’re not, Rain.” Cloud had met his father a handful of times but he had learned the man’s face, so similar to his own, and this glowing alien was not him. “You don’t even sound like him.”

The strangeness of the situation was too much and despite the calming effect of the not-doctor’s hug, Cloud just wanted to get a little space between himself and the strangers clinging to him, to try and remember how he’d ended up under the care of a glowing girl. Neither Rain or Aerith resisted his efforts to get away, both just hovering close in case he wasn’t ready to stand or if he needed them. 

“Long time no see, man,” Zack said.

Cloud turned his way, but he didn’t smile or wave. He flinched back and retreated until his back was against the wall. If the glowing people were alien but comforting, the purple-black gargoyle was terrifying. “You stay away.” They were all talking at him and the music was so loud. Cloud clamped his hands back over his ears, but he didn’t dare close his eyes, not with the monster in the room. 

Aerith held her glowing orange and green hand out, waiting so Cloud could see that she intended to touch him again. The effect was immediate. When her hand was on his neck, the music was more palatable, the colors less bright. The monster across the room still loomed sickly but more transparently, a familiar silhouette identifiable under it. “That’s not Zack,” Cloud whispered. “What have you done to him?”

“Spike? It’s me.” The gargoyle stepped toward him and Cloud tried to stay calm. It almost sounded like Zack, but not quite. “Aerith?”

Aerith held a hand out, indicating that Zack should just stay back. “I’ve always seen the world way I see it, so it’s hard for me to understand what you’re seeing now verses what you saw before, but the world hasn’t changed. Zack is the same guy you knew. Rain is the same man you met. You’ve changed. Your perception is open. Rain did that.”

Cloud went still for a long moment, remembering and then tears were falling. He gripped his neck where the spear had entered him all those weeks ago. “What did you do to me?” Cloud asked, hoarsely. 

“I gave you eyes to see and ears to hear,” Rain said, in a calm placating tone. “You’re a Cetra just like me. Look at your hands and you’ll see what you couldn’t before.”

“I’m not a fucking Cetra.” Scared to be proved wrong, Cloud lifted his hands anyway. He felt sick staring at the stranger’s appendages in all their crackling, electric-blue glory. He gasped and his tears turned to sobs. “Turn me back,” he begged. 

“You can’t go back. There isn’t a ritual for that.” Rain frowned and tried to reason through his son’s palpable distress. “I know you feel overwhelmed, but you’ll acclimate. You’ve always been a Cetra, Cloud. You just couldn’t see or hear.”

Aerith sank with Cloud as he folded to the ground, keeping her comforting contact. “Zack, Rain, give us some space. Why don’t both of you head down to Nibelheim and buy some supplies, maybe give his mom the news? We’ll be here. We’ll be fine.”

Cloud put a hand on top of Aerith’s and clung to her. 

“Please make it stop. Please?”


	13. Phyrric Victory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is brought to you by insomnia. Hope it makes sense.

_Rain and his brothers, who had never heard the planet as well as a Cetra should, had no trouble hearing their fellow Cetra in the battle against Pandemonium. Linked by Amie they didn’t fight the battle as individuals, they were one organism, fighting a hoard of infected mutants on one continent only to be transported across the world minutes later to burn a tainted forest._

_When one of the younger Lightning was infected, the Cetra knew immediately and their generals ended them before they could become an enemy. In the moment, Rain felt no guilt for the act. He wasn’t killing a man he had raised and trained from childhood. At the moment of infection, they were dead already._

_When the last infected had been dispatched and the last tainted city burned, Rain, Lor and Ollio stood together with a small handful of their last Lightning. The final infected, a Cetra mutated into a travesty, awaited their fight._

_An external beating heart tethered her to the ground, rooted into the soil, while broad purple-black wings beat ineffectually at the sky. Her baleful red eyes, glowed at them, daring them to challenge her._

_The other Cetra though not present physically were heavy in the air, casting at the infection, funneling every piece back to the final host. The Lightning knew their job. Fight her, damage her, distract her, but don’t kill her. Like a swarm they attacked._

_Lor ripped and hacked at the creature’s wings. Ollio kept them shielded and hasted and healed, picking away with his bow when he could. Rain kept the creature’s spawn contained, killing any tentacles or independent monsters that emerged, experimenting with status effects at every possible moment, though the beast seemed resistant to most everything._

_One after another, Rain was forced to euthanize the last of the young Lightning as they succumbed to infection, until only the three brothers remained fighting._

_After what felt like hours, their efforts were rewarded. The calamity was too weak and the Cetra were able to exert their will. A crystalline prison formed, encasing every piece of the monstrosity, alive but dormant. The unfortunate host-Cetra’s red eyes dimmed and closed._

_The brothers came together on the battlefield, exhausted and emotionally spent. The plan had succeeded. Pandemonium had been contained, but none of them felt victorious or proud. They leaned together, linking arms. Clinging to the comfort of physical contact, they let their brothers’ strength build their own so they didn’t fall completely apart._

_Ged found them like that, and he led them home without offering unwelcome congratulations. Back at Amie, they found more casualties. More than half the Cetra survivors had died in the final push, casting until they died to seal their enemy. The survivors were too exhausted to move, and the brothers set about taking the living back from Amie. The dead they left to nourish the sacred tree._

_Too tired to go on, but unable to rest, Rain left his brothers sleeping in each other’s arms, clinging to the comfort of physical touch as though they were small again. He climbed up their sacred tree and out onto the web of roots. He staggered along the path he’d been traveling for decades where he found his mentor._

_Bathed in moonlight, Ged crouched in front of him, his hands dug into the roots and his face drawn into angry hard lines._

_Rain settled near him and dug his own hands in to try and listen to what Amie or the goddess would have him know. Images came, blurred and indecipherable for the most part, but Rain felt loved and comforted. When he let go and stopped trying to listen, he found Ged sitting beside him looking at the sky._

_“We won our battle,” Rain said. “All three of us survived. Why am I not proud or relieved?”_

_Ged didn’t answer at first, seemingly deaf to his students question. “Are Lightning champions of the goddess to protect the planet or the Cetra?”_

_“Can’t we protect both?” Rain asked._

_“I thought so for most of my life. We saved the planet today. You and your brothers served your role admirably, but as a Cetra, the victory was empty. Our race died today. Amie knows, the planet knows and most of the survivors know too. You and your brothers shouldn’t be the only ones in the dark just because she built you with dulled ears.”_

_“There are survivors, hundreds of them. We can come back. The water family will farm their brothers and sisters like chocobos if they have to, right? The goddess will see us through.” Rain couldn’t maintain his hopeful recital in the face of Ged’s palpable grief and anger. “If the Cetra died today, then we failed.”_

_“We were supposed to fail. The planet decided to remove us. She knew what was coming, felt it so many years in advance that she built an army just to protect her, but she let the enemy burn through us, through our weak flowery parts. She let it end us before she let her army enter the fight. She tried to placate me, to explain herself, but I’m of no mind to listen. I’m not her Lightning anymore.” Ged placed his two silver daggers amongst Amie’s roots, returned from where he drew them a thousand years ago._

_Rain was shocked to realize that Amie had begun to entwine Ged, to pull him down like she had the dead earlier. He drew his spear, torn between letting Amie have her way and saving his mentor. “Ged? I don’t know what to do.”_

_“Put the spear away. I’m ready to go.” Ged made no effort to fight, relaxing back into the lovingly twining roots. “Tell your brothers that they made me very proud. I will see you all again in the promised land.”_

* * *

The trek down Nibel mountain started quiet, neither Zack or Rain deigning to speak to the other, but Zack couldn’t help himself and spoke up a few minutes in. “You are a piece of work, you know. How could you do that to your own kid?”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like that,” Rain said, after a long hesitation. 

“Yeah? How was it supposed to be?” Zack asked. 

“If you lived your whole life in black and white and someone could give you the gift of color, wouldn’t you want it? It should have been a joy for him. I saw the results of the ritual for children over the years. It was always gentle, beautiful. They laughed and smiled. It wasn’t like this.” Rain swiped at tears in his eyes. “Do you think for one second I’m happy to see him hurting, to see him struggling?”

“No, I believe you’re upset about that, I’m just not sure you’re sorry for what you did. Did you even tell Cloud what you were going to do to him? Did you ask his permission? It didn’t seem that way back there. I just heard you justifying yourself and telling Cloud to get over it.” 

Rain shook his head. “How could I make a meaningful offer when he disregarded my explanations as the ravings of a lunatic? He deserves to know himself, not just the human part, the Cetra too. I’m not sorry for what I did. He’ll acclimate and he’ll forgive me when he does.”

“Yeah?” Zack shrugged and smiled grimly. “Maybe Cloud is a better person than me. Someone fucked my mind over like that without even a warning much less my permission, I’d never forgive them.”

* * *

Sitting against the wall side by side, arms entwined and hands clasped together, Aerith tried to figure how to help the steadily crying man next to her. “So, Cloud, could you tell me a little about what you see when you look at me?” Aerith asked gently. “I mean, do you see me or do you just see light?”

Cloud looked at her and then away. “You’re really bright, glowing orange but with green moving around like one of those novelty lights, a lava lamp? Have you seen one of those? You sound like a girl, but I can’t see you past the light at all really.”

“Lava lamp person, that must look strange,” Aerith said. She held out one of her hands and wiggled her fingers. “I see the glow, the orange and the green but they’re in the background. My hand is what I’m focused on, fingers and nails. I can see the hairs on my arm and the pores in my skin. The light shouldn’t be blocking everything out.”

“Well it is,” Cloud said. “Whatever Rain did to me, it didn’t work right.”

Aerith squeezed the hand they had linked and smiled, though she realized Cloud couldn’t possibly see that expression right now. “Have you ever stared at something until it went out of focus? Maybe your eyes just need to practice focusing past their new spectrum? Why don’t you try and see my fingers?”

Aerith waved her free hand, inviting Cloud to look, and he tried after only a few seconds, glaring and squinting for several minutes before just looking away again in disgust. “I can’t.” She squeezed his hand again and he sighed. “Why is it better when you’re touching me? Are you doing something?”

“That is a passive benefit of having a fellow Cetra around. Turns out we’re a pretty tactile species and skin to skin contact is a smooth anti-anxiety fix. I learned that from the tree yesterday,” Aerith said. “The tree, thinks you’ll be okay if you have some time to get used to what’s changed.”

“The tree that held me down while my father skewered me? That tree?” Cloud asked. 

“Yeah,” Aerith agreed uncomfortably. 

“Let’s hope the tree is trustworthy.” Cloud closed his eyes and laughed without humor. “Gods, I’ve got to report in. I’m going to be in so much trouble with my command. You think this will turn into a medical discharge? I wonder what they’ll write on the form? Infantryman is hearing music that isn’t there and seeing lights that aren’t there either. I think that’s called a section eight? That’s the one that means discharged for being insane.” Forcing himself to open his eyes and look at the faceless beacon of orange light, Cloud really tried to see the person inside it. “I thought Rain was crazy, talking about seeing and hearing things. He proved me wrong, didn’t he?” 

“Yeah, he shouldn’t have done that to you, not without your permission.” Aerith blew out a sigh and continued. “To my knowledge, you, me and Rain are the last three Cetra in the world. There are people who would use and abuse you for that. So I need you to do me one favor—stay as far away from Shinra as you can. They think you’re dead and you shouldn’t disabuse them of that.”

“Stay away from Shinra?” Cloud thought about his career, about the SOLDIER exam, and all the dreams he had had for the future. It felt like a part of him was dying. “It’s not like I can function as a infantryman anyway.” Feeling more steady and calm enough to actually process more reasonably some of what had happened in the last few hours, Cloud frowned at the memory of everything he had seen. The purple black monster that obscured Zack entirely had been chilling. “Is Zack okay? What happened to him? Rain didn’t do that to him?”

“Rain made mistakes, but he didn’t do that to Zack’s aura. It’s a side effect to how they make SOLDIERs from what I can tell. I don’t know what it is, but it feels inert, inactive, to me anyway.” Aerith shrugged. “Rain seems to know enough about it to have odd names for it, but I’d never actually mentioned it to Zack. It seemed unnecessarily cruel to tell him he had an ugly aura, when I was the only one who could even see it.” 

“I’m tired,” Cloud said, his eyes drooping.

“Then you should sleep.” Aerith helped him back to bed. She kept a hand on his wrist, reluctant to leave until he was actually unconscious. “Rain and Zack won’t be back for a couple of days. We’ll try working on your eyes again tomorrow, okay?”

“Thank you,” Cloud said, “for helping me.”

* * *

Standing in front of her sink, washing dishes, Claudia Strife tried not to be angry at the busybody group of women who had just come to visit. They meant well. She was alone out here with no one to check up on her. Claudia was just tired of the platitudes. Everyone in her life seemed unable to see her without sharing one. 

Time heals all wounds. 

Everything happens for a reason. 

Sometimes it’s hard to see the goddess’ plan. 

The goddess could take her plan and suck on it, as far a Claudia was concerned. She’d never cursed the gods when any of her family died, not until her son. Cloud’s death was just one loss too far. Maybe it would be easier if he had died in the line of duty, serving a purpose, living out his dream. Everyone knew the risks to being in the military. It wasn’t exactly a safe career path, but Cloud hadn’t died with a rifle in his hands fighting for a cause. 

His father had killed him, and wasn’t she a little complicit too? Cloud called her for advice. He told her Rain seemed mentally off, and she hadn’t told him to run the other way. She encouraged his instinct to help the maniac. In quiet moments, Claudia replayed that conversation in her head over and over, wishing she’d said something to put Cloud on guard, to tell him to protect himself.

The church pastor had come around every week since Cloud’s untimely passing, and he tried to console her. He seemed to think retribution wouldn’t make her grief any less, but Claudia didn’t care. Her grief wasn’t going anywhere, but she craved justice. Daniels, the MP in Mideel, had to be tired of her daily calls, but he ought to just be glad she couldn’t afford a ticket to the island or he could deal with her questions in person. 

Looking out the window, Claudia sucked a breath in. The SOLDIER who brought her the news of Cloud’s death was walking back up her garden path. The only reason she could imagine for his return would be news of the justice she had been praying for. Claudia dried her hands and hurried out the front door, almost thrumming with anticipation. “Did they catch him? Is Rain in custody?”

“Ms. Strife, could we step inside to talk?” Zack asked, nervously.

“Of course, please.” Claudia gestured Zack in and ushered him to the sitting area. “Just say it. They caught him. I need to know he’s going to pay for what he did.” 

“Can we sit down? I think it’s best you sit.” Zack sat in an old faded chair and waited for Claudia to perch on the sofa’s edge. “I have really good news, beyond what I thought possible the last time we talked. We found Rain, but we found Cloud too. Ms. Strife, Cloud’s alive. He’s injured. I mean he’s **really** not okay yet, but he’s not dead.”

Her eyes shot wide open, and Claudia clamped both hands over her mouth. Zack was very glad that she didn’t faint.

“I’m so sorry to have told you that he died. If I thought there was any doubt, I’d never have told you such a thing. We were all wrong...”

“Don’t apologize,” Claudia said, abruptly. “Gods, can I hug you?” Without waiting for permission, she sprang across the room and wrapped her arms around the terribly kind SOLDIER that seemed to care so much about her boy. “Is he back in Midgar? You said he’s hurt. I need to go to him.”

“Not in Midgar,” Zack continued. “This is all going to sound a little unbelievable, but it’s the truth as far as I can tell.”

Claudia immediately looked more worried, but she stepped back and resumed her seat without being asked. “Why don’t you start at the beginning? Tell me what happened to my Cloud. Then you tell me where he is.”

“I don’t pretend to know everything.” Zack raked his hands nervously through his hair. “Have you ever heard of a race called the Cetra?”

* * *

Sitting in the woods outside Nibelheim, Rain tried not to think too hard on the SOLDIER’s meeting with Claudia. She wasn’t the naïve fifteen year old who helped save his life and then warmed his bed nearly two decades ago. An adult and a mother, she had been told that he killed their child. The SOLDIER wasn’t likely doing him any favors in revising the story. 

She undoubtably hated him, like their son hated him right now. Rain had told the SOLDIER that Cloud would forgive him, but he wasn’t actually so sure. In a million years he didn’t think the ritual would hurt his child. If Amie had felt any reservations, Rain had misinterpreted them. Part of him wanted to run away, to head back to the shortcut up the trail and just vanish instead of facing his mistakes.

It was cowardly, and Rain stamped the fleeting thought down. He had to stay in case Aerith needed his help to save Cloud. And when Cloud was well and acclimated and of sound mind, he could decide what his father owed him for his errors in judgement. 

If he couldn’t forgive him right away, Rain would accept it.

His son was a Lightning. Baring death by misadventure, they would have quite a long time to come to terms with one another.

When the SOLDIER returned with Claudia, Rain stood politely and nodded to them. He made no effort to dodge Claudia’s slap or to avoid the spit she purposefully sprayed across his front. “I deserve that.”

“Oh, Rain, you have no idea what I’d do to you if you weren’t helping save my boy from this fuck up of yours. But you are helping, so I left the shotgun in my pack.” Claudia gestured for Rain to lead the way. “Let’s get moving.”

Claudia very obviously wanted to make the hike in silence, but Rain couldn’t help talking to her. “You are still very beautiful. I never forgot you, you know.” Claudia didn’t respond, but Rain kept talking every few minutes, though he got no response. “It wasn’t a lie you know. I really didn’t think I could have a child with a human or another Cetra. Lighting are born sterile. At least we’re supposed to be.”

He didn’t look back between bursts of dialogue to gauge her reaction. He just talked. “Cloud reminded me of you quite a lot when I met him in Mideel. You both instinctively tried to save me at first meeting. It was admirable. He even called me Mr. Rain.”

“He is going to be okay, you know. I didn’t mean to hurt him, Claudia. It was supposed to be a gift, a kindness. If I thought it could go wrong, I would have handled it differently. He’s half Cetra and it wasn’t right that he didn’t even know what that meant. I just wanted him to have a chance to see, to hear.”

“Shut up,” Claudia commanded, tersely. “If you keep talking, me and Zack here are going to gag you. Do you understand? I don’t want to hear your compliments, your explanations or excuses. Walk and keep it to yourself.”

Zack smirked and cracked his knuckles threateningly. “Oh please keep talking.”

“I’m sorry,” Rain finished simply and didn’t say anything more.

Claudia didn’t bite back further. She didn’t shout or rail at her long-estranged lover. She walked and she breathed. She focused on being calm and saving her energy for the traumatized young man waiting for her just up the mountain. 

It was almost like stepping back in time when they emerged from the tree line into her old front yard. Smoke streamed from the chimney signaling occupancy and Claudia picked up her pace. She needed to see Cloud with her own eyes before she could really believe the fantastical tale she’d been told. 

Once inside, Zack efficiently blocked Rain from continuing to the closest bedroom and he gestured Claudia forward. “We’ll wait out here. No need to overwhelm him.”

Claudia nodded and hurried forward. 

Her boy was huddled on her old bed, moth-eaten bedspread in far worse shape than she’d left it fifteen years ago. He looked up at her and immediately flinched away, closing his eyes. Part of her hadn’t believed Zack. It had seemed so impossible, like a fantasy novel more than reality, but her heart swelled with joy to just see her kid alive. “Oh Cloud.”

A young girl in a simple pink sundress frowned and scolded her boy. “You have to keep them open and try or it’s never going to actually get better, Cloud. She’s not nearly so bright to look at as me or Rain. Try to see past the glow and see her.” She waved at Claudia and quickly introduced herself. “I’m Aerith. You must be Ms. Strife. It’s very nice to meet you.” 

Claudia nodded to the girl kindly, but didn’t look away from Cloud for more than a moment. “Talk to me, Cloud. I’m so glad to see you, kiddo.”

Ms. Strife? Cloud looked back at the pillar of obstructive white light and tried to see his mother. He made himself keep his eyes open and he strained to see through the glow, but it was impossible. The ever present song had changed with her arrival too. The planet here recognized his ma, Cloud thought and it rejoiced to see her again. The whole situation was painfully disconcerting, like every second of his life since Rain’s ritual. “Ma?”

Aerith stood and waved to Cloud and his mother. “I’ll let you two have a minute. Drink your tea, Cloud. It’s good for you.”

Settling on the bed next to him, Claudia gently stroked Cloud’s hair back out of his face and tried not to get emotional at his apparent difficulty looking at her. Zack had explained that her boy’s sight and hearing had been adjusted by his father and that he was having some difficulty coping with the change. “Your friend Aerith said I wasn’t glowing too terribly bright. Do you want to tell me about it?”

Cloud shook his head, but then he hugged her, desperate to reach through the light and find his ma tangibly there. The familiarity of her smell and touch was immediately apparent. If he closed his eyes, he could almost pretend that he had never been through Rain’s ritual and the world wasn’t built out of indecipherable bursts of brain-searing color and endless, un-mutable music. Cloud sobbed into his mother’s embrace and choked out the story of what happened, of what his world had turned into.


	14. How to Disappear

_The surviving Cetra retreated to one of their last standing cities. If Rain had thought they would try to save themselves, the Cetra gifted in fertility magics fighting to preserve their race with some aggressive breeding plan, he was wrong. Defeated and despondent, they discussed ways to mentor humanity, to teach them to steward the planet when they were completely gone._

_Rain wanted to shake them and make them fight, but he was a Lightning past the crisis he was born for and he couldn’t even hear the planet properly. They would never listen to him and he couldn’t blame them. Rain protected the survivors and stayed close to his brothers until one morning, Lor refused to get out of bed._

_“Hey, are you feeling well? Do you want me to get a healer?” Ollio asked. Lor didn’t answer, but apparently not liking the look in his eyes, Ollio strode toward the door. “I’m getting a healer. He doesn’t feel well.”_

_Rain crawled into the bed next to his very large brother and wrapped his arms around him as best as he could with his much smaller frame. “I’m sad too, big brother,” Rain whispered. “You shouldn’t scare Ollio. We have to take care of each other.”_

_The healer came and used a specialized scan materia. She fished out a red potion that none of the brothers recognized and set it on the bedside table. “Apoptosis,” the healer announced. “It happens to Lightning after their battle sometimes.”_

_“Apoptosis?” Ollio asked. “What the hell is that?”_

_“Spontaneous death,” the healer clarified. “The red potion will help him sleep if he wants. I’ve never assisted a Lightning through this transition, but historically the process has been recorded as fast and painless.”_

_“Scan him again,” Ollio snapped. “Lor is stronger than ten dragons. He isn’t just dying for no reason. I don’t accept it. Scan. Him. Again.”_

_The healer pursed her lips at them but she did as he asked. She scanned the giant Cetra and shook her head sadly. “You can threaten me if you want, young man, but you brother is leaving for the promised land.”_

_Rain and Ollio did not accept the healer’s verdict. The two of them wrestled their brother to the nearest shortcut and carried him to Amie. Their sacred tree cradled the fading brother and though neither of them were able to glean perfectly what she tried to convey, the gist was unmistakable._

_Lor was dying._

_She couldn’t save him._

_Rain and Ollio curled around their fading brother, giving him the comfort they could. Ollio recited the oral histories, a quiet, rhythmic lullaby that Lor seemed incapable of responding to. He recited all the feats and battles of Ged and even composed an exaggerated, fictionally-happy recitation for their own sad victory. His fantasy story was glorious with a thriving, rebounding Cetra race and three Lightning who lived on forever protecting them._

_At the end Lor managed only a single whispered word before his breath stopped, “Beautiful.”_

_Whatever beauty Lor had seen or heard with his last moment, his two brothers couldn’t ask him for clarity. Was it a glimpse of the promised land, a critique of Ollio’s story, or something else entirely? Amie pulled Lor down but Ollio refused to let him disappear into the roots. “Help me, Rain. She’s taking him,” Ollio pleaded._

_Rain did help, but not to hold Lor up. He tugged Ollio back, all but tackling him away from the danger of Amie’s hunger as she claimed the dead Cetra. “He’s gone. He’s gone. He’s gone.” Rain said, over and over. A chant begging Ollio to see reason._

_In his grief, Ollio screamed and fought, but Rain held on, strong and clear for both of them. Eventually Lor was gone below the roots and the remaining Lightning weren’t fighting but clinging to one another in shocked grief._

_“Promise, you won’t leave like that,” Ollio demanded. “Promise me.”_

_“Lor didn’t choose that death. If I’m taken, it wouldn’t be a choice,” Rain said, hesitantly._

_“Don’t kid yourself. He chose it. You’ve felt the same tug, the feeling that you’re no further use, that you should just let go and die. I felt it, but I stayed for you and for Lor. I’m not a quitter. Now you promise me that you’ll fight, that you’ll stay for me.”_

_Rain hadn’t felt that tug Ollio was describing. He was as upset as anyone by their circumstances, but he hadn’t for a moment felt tempted to just die. It was distressing that Ollio had felt those urges even if he’d resisted them. “I’m not going anywhere,” Rain promised._

* * *

Gathered around an old sturdy kitchen table, Zack, Aerith and Cloud’s entire extended family shared an intense silence. Well it was silent for the humans present. The Cetra lived their lives to a soundtrack and the planet seemed jauntily happy for the crisp spring Nibel morning. His eyes closed against the glare of so many people in a small place, Cloud couldn’t help laughing at the incongruity.

“Cloudy?” Claudia was immediately rubbing her son’s back, concerned at the outburst. “You okay?”

“I just…” Keeping his eyes shut he turned to Aerith, using an awareness of the lives around him instinctually that he hadn’t really realized yet. “I mean, you hear that? Right? It’s not just me.” He clapped a hand over his mouth, still laughing.

Aerith smiled and actually blushed. “Oh I hear it. She’s happy. The planet is made of so many swirls and swags, independent eddies here and there. The mountain, this segment of the planet, is really happy to have the Strife family back. It’s a possessive old hill. It’s being a little obnoxious, and I’m used to hearing the planet.”

“That’s the not the word,” Cloud said. “I mean you _hear that_ , right?”

Aerith’s blush turned absolutely crimson. “I hear it. It’s spring and the mountain is happy.” She turned to Zack. “It’s the planet-song version of a Barry White love story. It wants more Strife babies. She’s an enthusiastic hill, and she’s not used to actually being heard in any meaningful way.” Aerith trailed away and shrugged.

“Oh really? _Let’s Get It On_ as sung by a mountain? I’ve never knowingly lived on a naughty hill,” Zack said. “Spike, I’m impressed. I wonder what the swamp back home in Gongaga would say if I visited?”

“Pandemonium standing on her soil? She’d be terrified,” Rain said, shattering the mood.

Cloud’s laughter had trailed off and his jaw had gone tense. Aerith reached over and took one of his hands. “I’m fine,” he said quickly. “It’s just loud. I’m really okay. We’re having a meeting here. Sorry for distracting everyone.”

“Right,” Zack agreed, wishing he could help his friend as easily as Aerith could with a touch. “Aerith and I can’t really stay away any longer. Kunsel is going to have to wrap things up and head out. The cover story would be far more convincing if Aerith and I went to Costa Del Sol and let the Turks watch us play on the beach for a day before making our return home so that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to use the shortcuts to get back to Midgar and then stow away on a cargo ship to Costa Del Sol. Shinra should have no idea about the secret adventure we’ve been on.”

Aerith squeezed Cloud’s hand tighter. “It feels like we’re abandoning you, but it’s not like we can take you back to Midgar. Shinra is not a friend to the Cetra,” Aerith said, firmly. “Not getting on their radar is top priority for both of you. I was born on their radar, so that can’t be helped. They don’t know you exist, Rain. Cloud they’re paying your mom your death benefits. Just keep cashing the checks and keep your head down.”

“I don’t like having to leave like this, either. The situation is not ideal.” Zack looked over at Rain, expression absolutely grim, leaving no doubt that his reservations had blond hair, blue eyes, and carried a spear. There was no way to banish the old Cetra. He was a huge part of their failsafe. If Cloud started to seize, Rain could stop it. If they needed to escape quickly, he could get Claudia and Cloud through a shortcut. Rain wasn’t going anywhere and there was literally nothing to be done about it. 

Rain had managed to accept the anger from Cloud and Claudia as earned. The judgment from Aerith about his lack of empathy had frankly shamed him. But Zack’s abject disgust, he couldn’t swallow. “Stop acting like I’m the dangerous one here,” Rain said. “You’re infected with a plague that very nearly destroyed the planet and all but eradicated my entire species. I made my mistakes. But I won’t be disrespected by Typhoid Mary. I’m sorry, Cloud, okay? I didn’t foresee how this would effect you. You don’t have to accept my apology, but I swear you don’t have to fear me. I’m not going to hurt anyone, especially you or your mother. Stop treating me like a deranged animal. I’m not a monster.”

Zack wanted to fire back but he looked between Aerith and Claudia, and finally to Cloud. The three of them had decided to let Cloud lead the way with his father. He was the injured party. In the simplest sense, this was a family matter, an argument between father and son. 

“If I could open my eyes and see your face right now, it might be easier to judge your sincerity,” Cloud said. “How about we agree to leave each other plenty of space for the moment. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to open a dialogue. I’d thank you for helping support me through my recovery, but all things considered, I’ll just accept your continued presence, on a couple of conditions—you don’t touch me or anyone in this room without their permission; don’t do me or anyone in this room any favors without their express and fully informed consent, while you’re at it.”

Rain stood straighter and nodded briefly. “You have my word as a Cetra, a Lightning, a father, I won’t dishonor your request.”

Zack looked at Aerith and she nodded once. She had said it was hard to lie between Cetra, and she believed he meant what he said. 

Cloud swiped at his eyes and cast his face upwards, staring blindly. “I’m an idiot. Why the Hell do I believe you?”

Before they left, Aerith reviewed how to brew the brain-tea with Claudia again. She made Cloud perform the exercises they had created to try and help his eyes. Fussing around like a hyperactive hummingbird she finally let Zack pull her out the door. “You have my number! Call me every day!” Aerith said.

Zack didn’t question Aerith’s reluctance to leave. She had spent most of her life thinking she was the last of her kind. She had gained a crazy uncle and sort of a brother, at least that’s how it looked to him from the outside. “We’ll come back as soon as we can. The shortcuts are there. It won’t even be hard.”

“Of course we’ll be back. Try and keep me away.” Aerith strode forward confidently, pausing at the shimmering, visible-only-to-her shortcut. She held out her hand. “Ready?”

* * *

Using a very sharp pocket knife, Reno artfully carved a big breasted pinup into the picnic table that he’d spent the better part of a week parked at. The position didn’t offer good cover. There was no way, Zack and Aerith hadn’t noticed him and his shockingly red hair sitting in the open. But the position gave him an excellent view of the hotel room with the ancient and her boy toy. Every few minutes he would check on the happy couple with his infrared binoculars. 

Rude arrived predictably early for his shift and took a seat next to him. “Anything interesting happen? Did they venture out?”

“Eh, usual crap. They ate two meals, spent a lot of time in the hot tub, the bed. Don’t worry I didn’t pry. Watching infrared silhouettes bump nasties isn’t my scene,” Reno said, while putting the finishing touches on his latest creation, a cowgirl in some impossibly short cutoffs. A whole farm of pinups covered the tabletop, marking his week sitting there. 

“Weird isn’t it, taking a vacation to Costa Del Sol and then never leaving the hotel room?” Rude said, adjusting his glasses.

“They have a hot tub and a bed; they’ve been busy,” Reno said with a smirk. 

“You’re probably right. Word from Tseng, we need to lay actual eyes on Aerith in the next twenty four hours, not just her heat signature. If they don’t depart for home by this time tomorrow, we’re to deliver a mission to Fair and end the vacation.”

Smirking, Reno nodded. “Finally, I’m running out of room to carve and this mission is boring as Hell.”

Rude took up the infrared binoculars and watched evening room service arrive. “It will be good to get home.” Setting down the binoculars he pulled a novel out to read. 

Finally finished with his latest masterwork, Reno slapped his partner on the back as he departed. “See you tomorrow.”

If they hadn’t known they were being closely watched, Zack and Aerith might have been caught switching places with Kunsel and his dancer friend. As it was, Zack and Aerith rolled up to the hotel room to deliver the evening room service and seamlessly took over the vacation. 

“This place is beautiful,” Zack said, surveying the pink tinted walls and plush white carpets. 

Aerith laughed, and spun around. “Seriously? It’s so gaudy. There’s gilt on the pepper shaker and the paper towel holder. Where do you get a gilded coffeemaker?”

“Okay it’s tacky, but it is shiny,” Zack said. “We could try the food since you aren’t impressed with the décor?”

“I’d rather try the hot tub,” Aerith said. She fished her staff out and cast a quick cleanse over the water. Zack would have argued that the materia didn’t work like that, but he suspected that maybe Aerith wasn’t as bound by those rules as everyone else in the world. 

“We don’t have suits,” Zack said.

Aerith rolled her eyes. She stripped off her dress, kicked off her boots and socks, and wearing nothing but a very pretty matching set of white cotton bra and panties, stepped down into the water. “How do you turn on the bubbles?”

Quickly stripping down to his boxers, Zack joined her. Together they got the fancy jets going. They had had their moments, holding hands, kissing, making out even. But Aerith was young and Zack had never wanted to pressure her to take a step she wasn’t ready for. Like usual, Zack let Aerith drive the evening. When she slipped close to him, and snuggled under his arm, he let her. Her small, gentle hands were tickling over his chest and then they were kissing. 

Zack realized quickly, that he might get lost in this moment. He pulled away and left the hot tub in a single graceful motion. “Zack?” Aerith asked, visibly startled, maybe even hurt.

“I’m sorry.” Zack thought about all the comments from Rain and from Aerith herself about his contamination and whether he was contagious. How could he be intimate with anyone not knowing what was wrong with him? “We need to talk about this Pandemonium stuff before this goes any farther. Am I infected with something dangerous? Am I contagious?” Zack asked.

“Oh Zack,” Aerith shrugged, “I don’t know. I’d never heard the word Pandemonium before you did. Every SOLDIER has it, whatever it is, but it feels inert, asleep. I’m ninety nine percent sure you’re not contagious.”

“That sure? Well, I’m one hundred percent sure we’re not doing this,” Zack gestured at the hot tub, “until we know more.” With no small amount of regret, he brought Aerith a robe from the bathroom, before locking himself in for a cold shower.

When he stepped out of the bathroom, towel drying his hair, he found Aerith sitting in the hotel’s fluffy robe with a plate of French fries in front of her. “You’re on speaker,” she announced. 

Zack saw her open phone and realized quickly who she must have called. “Are we checking on Claudia already?” 

“Yeah, she and Cloud are doing fine. She let Rain have the phone so we could ask him some questions.” Aerith offered Zack a French fry bribe and raised her eyebrows, pleading with him to have an open mind and not fight with the only person alive that had any answers for them. “Rain has agreed to have a real conversation with us about Pandemonium. It’s obviously part of the secret sauce that lets Shinra pump people full of mako without killing them. But what is it really? Rain, we want to know. We need to know.”

“Anything for you, Aerith,” Rain said, as if there was any doubt who he valued of the pair asking questions. “It’s a plague, like I said. It fell from space, rapidly infecting a large majority of life on the planet. It mutated things, made them over into violent, rabid creatures. It poisoned everything it touched. The Cetra that avoided infection, banded together and beat it back. But we couldn’t find a way to kill it. Instead we successfully bound it, rendered it inert and buried it so deep that nothing should have ever found it.” Rain audibly sighed. “But one should never underestimate humanity’s ability to violate something sacred. 

“By all appearances, they dug up that plague corpse and started injecting it into other humans. I’m not sure how it’s not awoken yet, and I don’t have any way to get it back into the box we’d trapped it in. I think that maybe my unexpected progeny, Cloud, is a play by the planet to deal with this new development, but I’m not really sure. As you know, I’ve never had easy communication with the planet. Maybe you could ask her for me, Aerith?”

“Of course, I’ll let you know if I hear anything,” Aerith said. 

“Do that.” Rain continued without much pause. “Zack Fair, you seem like you are trying to be a good person. A good person would not spread this infection. You should be careful, especially with Aerith. Humans have natural resistance to Pandemonium, but it loves the lifestream as it flows in a Cetra. If you let it taint her, I don’t think you’d ever forgive yourself.”

Aerith snapped the phone closed before the conversation could continue. “That was enlightening. I think maybe I should ask the tree for a second opinion.”

“Was he lying about any of it? Could you tell over the phone?” Zack asked.

Aerith made a defiant face and looked away but she shook her head. “He wasn’t lying.”


	15. Audible

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was NOT brought to you by hurricane Zeta. You don’t know how much you’re going to miss your electricity until a hurricane blows over all the power poles.

_For the second time in his life, Rain was assigned a career. There was no question if he wanted the new job. He was Lightning and he served the Cetra. It was expected that he would accept his role and he did, starched white collar, funny triangular hat and all._

_“You look ridiculous,” Ollio said. Still wearing his serviceable leathers and very practical boots, Ollio had received the better position by far. He would remain at their base city and protect home._

_“I’m aware,” Rain said. A large faction of the surviving Cetra had decided to approach humanity as missionaries, to teach respect and care of Gaia as a religion. Sending them to humanity without protection wasn’t reasonable, and the eldest Cetra selected Rain to guard them. “Apparently, selling this new religion requires costumes. This is how a deacon dresses in this new church of ours. How am I supposed to swing a spear?” Rain demonstrated that the constraining tunic and tight pants were limiting his range of motion by awkwardly flapping his arms and bending his knees._

_“Better you than me, brother, but let me look.” Ollio circled his uncomfortable brother tugging at the formal clothing here and there. After some contemplation, he made a couple of strategic cuts using an old, sharp hunting knife. “That shouldn’t be very visible, but try drawing your spear.”_

_Rain was able to cleanly draw his weapon from the pocket sheath that shimmered at his left elbow. The sheath was like a shortcut but tiny and with only a single exit. Ged had gifted them each with a sheath when he deemed them competent with their gifts from the goddess. Remaining armed without wielding a weapon visibly and offending the other Cetra was invaluable. Rain expertly twirled the unwieldy weapon before sliding it back into its invisible home. “You’re brilliant,” Rain said, “I’d still rather my leathers.”_

_Ollio hugged his brother, an embrace that lingered for several long minutes. Similar extended hugs happened amongst the other survivors frequently since the battle against Pandemonium, Cetra taking what comfort they could in the touch of their family. “I don’t think an extended separation would be good for us,” Ollio said, abruptly. “Promise you’ll visit as often as you can.”_

_It wasn’t surprising that Ollio didn’t want to be separated from his brother. The ghost of Lor still hovered between them. Searching his brother’s face for any hint of the lassitude that had stolen the youngest of them, Rain tried to show his brother nothing but calm resolve. “I’ll try my best. You send word by Amie if you need me. We’re in this together.”_

_“Together,” Ollio agreed. “You were there when Ged, did what he did. Do you think his brothers died facing Chaos? Lately I’ve been thinking that maybe they didn’t. The oral histories aren’t detailed about their deaths.”_

_“You think it was apoptosis, that they might have died like Lor?” Rain asked. “I suppose they might have. Ged probably wouldn’t have liked talking about it if they did.”_

_“I’m just afraid that the planet will take you and I’ll be alone and I can’t do this alone. I’m not Ged,” Ollio said. “If you left, I‘d follow and then where would the other Cetra be? Wandering around in their funny costumes trying to guide humanity, getting their pretty heads chopped off for their trouble.”_

_“If Amie and all the other Cetra are right, it won’t matter for terribly long. The planet says our time is over,” Rain said._

_“I don’t accept that. If I accepted that, I’d be feeding Amie’s roots with our brother. As long as there are Cetra, our time isn’t over. The planet can’t take either of us if we refuse to go,” Ollio said, all fiery determination._

_Rain didn’t believe his brother._

_It wasn’t that Rain thought Ollio was lying on purpose, he was just trying to convince himself. Rain carefully didn’t call him on the lie. He was pretty sure self-deception was the only thing keeping his brother alive. “I’m not going anywhere, well except to the eastern continent to preach to some humans,” Rain said, “We are in this together. I need you, big brother.”_

_“I won’t leave you,” Ollio promised. “I won’t.”_

_Rain smiled, resolutely ignoring the unmistakable lie. They hugged again, Rain trying desperately to share some of his own strength before he had to go._

* * *

_Halfway around the world, helping to build a church, Rain felt his brother’s spirit on the way to the promised land. Unspeakably sad but not surprised, he breathed in and for a moment Ollio was there, embracing him, trying to pull him along, but Rain didn’t waver or consider following. He was needed here. His mission wasn’t over just because Pandemonium was asleep._

_The surviving Cetra were weak and soft, helpless as sheep. He wouldn’t leave them, not until the end, not even to be with his brothers._

* * *

Aerith stared hard at the battered black cell phone she had just sent a flurry of texts over. Zack made her promise that she wouldn’t use any of the new shortcuts without him, no visiting the big scary tree or the old barmy Cetra without protection. It wasn’t that she didn’t get his logic. The tree was carnivorous and had earned that title by eating people that trespassed on the regular. The crazy old man ran around with a spear stabbing people he cared about for their own good. 

He wanted her to be safe, but Zack had also taken two rather extended vacations recently and Shinra had decided to get some work out of him. 

Aside from some obviously rushed texts and a static-filled voicemail that came through at three in the morning, she hadn’t heard anything from him in a month. She had called Claudia every day as promised and talked with Cloud, but there was only so much you could do or check over the phone, not to even mention the questions she had for Amie. 

Seeing the anguished look on Zack’s face when she told him that he almost definitely wasn’t contagious had inspired her to change the situation. She didn’t understand Pandemonium, but Amie was there when the infection first attacked and it was there for the forced dormancy. If Pandemonium could be cleansed, the tree might have an idea where to start.

Of course she promised not to visit the tree without him, even with a nice convenient shortcut to follow. Aerith called Zack again and when the call went to voicemail she was ready. “Hey Zack, I know you’re busy saving the world and all. I got your voicemail but it was hard to understand. Do they have you deployed to the moon? Never mind, just, I’m going to make a couple of visits. You wanted me to wait, and I waited a whole month, but now I’m going. I’ll be fine. I won’t stay gone long enough for the Turks to even notice. Promise to text when I get back.”

* * *

Claudia had read somewhere that you couldn’t go home again, and standing in the cabin where she’d grown up, the statement had never felt more true. Fifteen years of neglect hadn’t done anything for the old house, but she hadn’t remembered it being nearly so small or primitive. The Frazier family had offered to buy the place after she relocated to the valley, and the price had been reasonable. As much as the money would have been helpful, Claudia couldn’t let the house or land go. She couldn’t keep it going alone as a trapping outpost, but some part of her thought Cloud might want it someday. 

She considered offering it to the other mountain families after Cloud decided to join up with Shinra, but her procrastination had been fortunate. Rain hadn’t burst in on a cabin full of Fraziers and they had a safe, secluded place to retreat to for Cloud to heal.

Trying his best to sit quietly and inoffensively at her kitchen table, Rain sipped at his water, ate the breakfast she’d provided and effortlessly sucked all the air out of the room. If she gave it a few minutes, maybe an hour, he would volunteer to carry water or forage or hunt, something to escape the house for a while. Rain wasn’t willing to fight with her, no mater what she said or how cutting she tried to be, he was politeness personified.

She would complain that his composure was inhuman, but that was a given. It had been made abundantly clear that while she hadn’t actually romanced a fairy, she had gone outside her species for their liaison. She didn’t want to hate him but it was hard. Her child was struggling along, functionally blind with the world’s strangest case of tinnitus thanks to his Cetra father. A father who thought so little of a human’s perspective on the world that he ripped it away from his child, without warning or permission. Gods, if he’d offered Cloud the chance to see the world a new way, her reckless little maniac probably would have jumped at the idea, but his father hadn’t even asked. 

Rain caught her looking at him and smiled. Claudia scowled back and started assembling vegetables on her cutting board. Honestly, it would be easier if he had aged a little, wrinkling or losing his hair. But the man hadn’t changed at all, fresh faced and prettier than when they’d met. His youthful face just hammered his otherness home every time she actually looked at him.

The weather was warm and the sun was shining, but it wasn’t looking to be a good day. Cloud had barely eaten breakfast and excused himself with the mumbled word headache. Claudia had chased him down with his bitter tea and wouldn’t leave until he finished it. The idea of her son having a full blown seizure had made her a bit authoritarian about the tea schedule.

Abandoning her vegetables for a moment, Claudia circled around to peek in on Cloud. She knocked lightly before pushing the door open a crack. She tried not to panic when she realized that the window was open and the bed was empty. 

“He’s fine,” Rain said from across the room. Moving his arm like a compass, he pointed southeast. “He slipped out and started walking a while ago. He’s moving at a reasonable pace and he hasn’t gone far. If he starts to head into the wilder areas, I’ll go stop him.”

“You will, huh? I’ll go get him now. He can barely see. What if he has a seizure? What if a dragon or a wolf or some other monster comes after him and he can’t protect himself?” Claudia was already jerking her coat on and halfway to the door, when Rain slipped into her path, blocking the exit. “If you think I won’t climb out the window, you’re wrong,” Claudia snarled.

“He isn’t so blind anymore, Claudia.” Rain held his hands up trying to keep the situation calm. “He took your shotgun. He is staying out of the woods. Let him reclaim a bit of freedom. He’s close enough and there is so little population here that I can keep tabs without him feeling smothered.”

Practically vibrating with her need to go find her son, Claudia confirmed that her shotgun was gone and turned angrily toward Rain. “So, you were going to just let this escapade go down without saying anything to me?”

“It’s been going down for a bit over a week, every couple of days.” Rain shrugged. “He’s a grown man and I was watching.”

“You were watching? Forgive me for not trusting your instincts, considering your track record,” Claudia said. She was already back to the bedroom window before Rain spoke again.

“I promised not to touch you and I won’t, but if you go out there, you’ll be the one who’s wrong. I am watching. He’s fine.”

* * *

Unaware that his escape had been noticed, Cloud picked his way carefully around the old barn and up the mountain path toward the overlook. With no humans or Cetra around, he could see almost normally. Other things had a glow but not nearly so bright as people. Alone outside, the glow in the living things was bearable and almost easy to focus around now. He hadn’t told his mother how much his sight had improved. He didn’t want to get her hopes up, but he could almost see her through the light she emitted, not her expression yet, but her silhouette was there and getting easier to discern everyday. 

From the overlook, Cloud sat, shotgun cradled on his lap and stared down past acres of woodland at the human glow of Nibelheim and the sickly green seepage of the nearby reactor. With his new perception, it was impossible to see a Mako reactor and not mourn a little for the ugly scar it created, life and light literally devoid in the land immediately in its vicinity.

He hadn’t come out to stare at the reactor or Nibelheim and Cloud shifted his focus to the more immediate area. He performed Aerith’s exercises, trying to focus his eyes and see the finer details of the environment through their background glow. 

The mountain spoke softer and clearer when Cloud sat outside in direct contact. Humming calmly along with his eye games, Cloud saw the world just a little clearer, a tiny fraction more completely. Sometimes it felt like the planet was pushing his recovery forward, gently adjusting his settings, bringing him back to a functional place. Almost despite himself, Cloud had gotten used to the constant song, and had come to quite like the mountain with its odd version of a personality. 

Curious how the planet’s voice would change in different places, Cloud longed to walk to Nibelheim, to visit Midgar, to reexplore every corner of the world he’d seen when he couldn’t hear its voice. The mountain balked and its song changed, as it accurately read his wanderlust. Cloud patted the rocky ground with one hand. “Nowhere else will ever be home like you,” he said, consolingly. 

Long before his mom made it up to where he was sitting, Cloud felt her coming. He knew it was only a matter of time before his ma noticed his regular escapes. He wondered if she would actually scold him or if she’d continue to treat him like he was made of porcelain. Part of him wanted her to yell at him like he was ten again and had snuck out to catch snakes at the river.

She didn’t yell. 

His ma settled next to him, looking out at the forest that stretched below them. She wouldn’t see the glow of Nibelheim through the trees, or the glimmering flicker of animals weaving in the more static light of the foliage. Cloud could remember how this place looked with human eyes, simpler, with less layers, and a lot greener. “Hey Ma.”

“Cloudy, you know better than to leave the house by yourself. You can’t see. What if a dragon came out and decided to eat you? Or what if you had a seizure?” Claudia asked, in a perfectly even tone. “What good is a shotgun if you can’t see properly to aim it?”

“I’m seeing a lot more clearly,” Cloud said. “You’re wearing your hair in a braid today and your dress is… blue? I can’t see your expression so I don’t know how mad you are, but I can see well enough to take a walk and shoot well enough to hit something with the shotgun. I didn’t take the rifle. You have to aim properly to use the rifle, and I’m not being stupid.” Cloud crossed his arms and glared at the horizon. “And can we just drop the constant seizure talk. I haven’t had a single seizure. I drank all the terrible tea. You can’t expect me to sit in that bedroom forever waiting to fall apart.”

“Fine, you can’t sit there forever. I wouldn’t want you to. Did I stop you from running off to Midgar and joining Shinra’s military when you’re not yet old enough to buy a beer or have a license? Have I ever tried to hold you back? You should have told me you were going to take a walk. You’re supposed to be an adult. An adult recovering from a serious injury would tell their mother that they were taking a walk instead of sneaking out like a sulky adolescent.” Claudia lost the even tone at the end and dropped into a scolding, not-quite-yell. 

“I didn’t want a chaperone. You don’t know what it’s like. The two of you in that house are suffocating. There are so many emotions, so much history. I just wanted to breathe some clear air.” Cloud struggled trying to explain how his shift in perception made emotionally fraught relationships more difficult to coexist with. Rain would undoubtably understand, but Cloud wasn’t ready to let him have the victory of discussing the situation with him. “I needed some space.”

“You can have space. I just need you to tell me when you’re going out and where you’re going. When you can actually see my expression or you can actually shoot the rifle and hit something, we can renegotiate.” Claudia smiled, indescribably encouraged at his improvement, and wished her Cloudy could see it.

“Technically, Rain had to know right where I was.” Cloud used his arm to point toward the woods like a compass. “Nest of squirrels, Vixen with babies, everything alive up here is like a little beacon. I don’t have to open my eyes to know where you and Rain are. I couldn’t slip off and hide if I wanted to, not on this mountain, not with how a Cetra sees things.”

There was no way Cloud could know how much he looked like his father when he had pointed like that, and Claudia was glad he couldn’t see her expression this time. In a strange way it felt like Rain had stolen her child and Cloud was slipping away from her. “Yeah, you’ll have to forgive me if I’d rather not trust that man’s judgement on your safety,” Claudia said at last. 

“I don’t trust him,” Cloud said, “Please, believe that. I should hate him.” 

“Yeah, I’m angry with him too.” Claudia scooted closer and pulled Cloud into her side. “Better not to hate anyone, though. It hurts you more than them.”

They sat together for a good long while, seeing two very different scenes, one painted in simple browns and greens, the other glowing in vibrant shades from every spectrum in the rainbow.


	16. Perspective

_The other Cetra didn’t really involve Rain in the daily work of their church. They didn’t want a Lightning helping them teach the humans how to steward the planet. Instead he spent his time filling gaps and duties they didn’t want to take on. The most recent was securing safe affordable transportation._

_Once an intricate web of shortcuts spanned the world, making travel simple and instantaneous to almost anywhere, but over the decades, the shortcuts had officially begun to fall apart. No living Cetra remained with the wind family’s gifts, and Amie couldn’t maintain the paths on her own, not without the anchors which had begun to truly decay._

_They might not trust him to teach planet stewardship, but he was very good at problem solving and had become quite adept at human culture. Rain found their transportation solution while visiting a vegetable farm. His first bird was a little white-yellow chick with pretty brown eyes. He bought her off a human farmer when she was just barely out of the egg. The farmer was breeding for a darker yellow and he gave Rain a nice deal._

_By the time they were ready to relocate again, Rain had bought, caught, and bred a small herd of two dozen birds to get them to their next missionary location._

_Not that the other Cetra cared for his opinion, but it didn’t seem to him that the humans took their efforts seriously. They had their own pantheons of gods and while some few listened to the Cetra’s lessons and took on the churches they built when they left them behind, it wasn’t a true conversion. Rain had circled around to see how those churches fared in the Cetra’s absence and the humans that hadn’t completely reverted to their old pantheons, hadn’t retained the spirit of the core teachings that he could tell._

_His perspective was a little different, considering he lived through the generations and could compare the shifts in humanity, but Rain thought this faction of Cetra had made a bad choice. Their church of the goddess wasn’t the real way to guide humanity’s path. Humanity was trending secular as a species, embracing science more and more._

_The remaining Cetra, the Fire family reborn as Rain had privately dubbed them, had infiltrated human academia and founded the discipline of planetology to teach the humans how to cultivate and protect the lifestream. Rain thought that group had a better chance to make a real difference in what humanity became. Of course, he’d always been partial to the Fire family’s ways._

_On his way out to tend the birds, Rain spotted a visitor. One of the few children, a little girl with the aura of a healer, was standing at the fence watching the chocobos. She was far too small to ride yet, but Rain approached her anyway. There weren’t enough Cetra left for him not to know who she was. “Hello there. You’re Daisy, right?” The little girl nodded, only sparing him a glance._

_“Would you like to help me feed the babies?” Rain asked._

_A war raged on the little girl’s chubby face but baby chocobos were tempting enough to overwhelm her concerns, whatever they were. She took Rain’s hand._

_Rain literally stumbled a step at the physical contact. How long had it been since one of the other Cetra voluntarily touched him? It had been years at least. The other Cetra weren’t being willfully cruel, withholding contact. His isolation was at least partially his own fault._

_He showed her where the gysahl greens were and helped her fill up each baby’s trough. When they were done he let her pet the young ones and their downy soft baby-feathers. “Come back tomorrow to help if you want. These babies all still need names.”_

_She nodded, very seriously. “What’s wrong with your glow?” Daisy asked. “It’s all crackly.”_

_“I’m a Lightning,” Rain said. “It makes me crackly.”_

_“I looks like it hurts. Do you need my daddy to fix you?” she asked. “He can heal anything.”_

_“It doesn’t hurt. I’m not sick, just different.” Rain offered her his hand again and this time he handled the contact almost normally. “Let’s get you home.”_

_Back with his birds later, Rain mounted his favorite chocobo, Nova, the only red in the current herd and let her run. Her body pumped like an engine and together they were very nearly flying. It wasn’t the same as having his brothers back, but when he rode a chocobo, it was a similar feeling. They became one unit._

_He wasn’t alone._

* * *

Aerith didn’t mean to lose track of time when she went to talk to the tree, but in her defense, the tree didn’t just have a conversation. It plugged you in and sent you on a sensory journey. Without the threat of Zack wandering around its roots, Amie seemed to have taken her return as an open invitation to properly chew the fat. 

When Amie let her go, Aerith wasn’t particularly hungry or thirsty, so she could be forgiven for not realizing immediately that the conversation hadn’t lasted hours but days. Checking her phone as she made her way down the tree’s roots, Aerith realized quickly that she was very late. Multiple calls from Claudia and Zack, and about five hundred text messages painted a picture of pure panic. 

Only secondarily noticing the change in date, Aerith winced. The tree shifted under her feet, responding to her distress and trying to warn her that she wasn’t alone. Aerith stopped abruptly and cradled her head in her hands. “This is bad.” She couldn’t even blame the tree for misinterpreting her request. Time was a very different concept for few thousand year old tree than a puny little Cetra. 

She would have called Zack immediately but there was another problem waiting just on the other side of Amie’s roots. Three humans who’s living auras she couldn’t begin to mistake were waiting patiently for her—Reno, Rude and their boss Tseng. “Okay, this is going to be okay.” Breathing deeply, she carefully arranged her dress. Aerith marshaled every bit of composure she had and forced herself to stroll casually forward. 

With each step Amie filled her in on details from the real world that had occurred while she discussed Pandemonium oblivious to it all. The tree let her know that the Turks had tried multiple times now to scale her roots and get to Aerith. She had eaten a pair of the infantrymen to make a point, but the suited humans had managed to avoid her hunger. Aerith patted the tree, commiserating with her over the damage those excursions had caused her. 

Amie was already shifting to pull Aerith down and spirit her far away from the invaders, to keep her safe. But Aerith straightened her shoulders and rejected the offer of escape. If she ran away, the Turks would rip Amie apart looking for her. Better to go talk to them and try to smooth things over.

Stopping her descent while she was still a good fifteen feet from the perimeter, Aerith waved to the impeccably suited gentlemen and the small group of infantrymen around them. “Hello, fancy seeing you all here.”

“Aerith, you’re very far from home,” Tseng said, a sliver of concern showing through his calm façade. “The tree is dangerous. Please come down.”

“Oh no need to worry about me. This tree and I are quite good friends. You of course should stay back,” Aerith said. “She’s picky about who can touch her.”

“We’ve noticed,” Rude said, under his breath. 

“How the Hell did you get all the way to Mideel?” Reno asked, but shut up quickly at a glance from his boss.

“It would seem that you’ve exceeded the perimeter we set in our agreement. You promised to stay in Midgar,” Tseng said. 

“It would seem so and yes this is definitely not Midgar,” Aerith agreed. “Would you believe it’s a long, boring story? I was just heading home, back where we agreed I’d stay. This wasn’t me running away. Promise.” She held up her right hand as though swearing.

“You broke our deal, Aerith. We will have to renegotiate our arrangement,” Tseng said. “I’m afraid Shinra is no longer certain of your willingness to stay close.”

“If I wanted to run away, I’d have done a better job,” Aerith said, spinning the situation, thinking on her feet. “Can’t we just go home and let things stay the same?”

Tseng sighed. “As Reno so crudely put it, how the Hell did you get all the way to Mideel? I have footage of you in your church within minutes of the footage of you scaling this tree’s roots. Perhaps if you demonstrated your travel methods, we could consider a new deal that doesn’t involve you moving into the tower. If we better understood how this situation happened, we could account for it in our monitoring.”

Either Zack hadn’t destroyed all the fancy cameras or someone had replaced them rather quickly. It was a lot harder to spin the truth when you could be contradicted with digital videos. “The tower, meaning the lab? I’d rather just stick with the old deal. Everyone wins with the old deal. But if we have to renegotiate, we could start with the tree. You see, I don’t have to come down, not ever if I don’t want. The tree here can keep me watered and fed, like its very own houseplant.” Aerith tried not to think too hard on where the nutrients the tree had fed her during their extended conversation came from—a little photosynthesis, a little bit of Shinra trooper. “Now, I want to go home, renew my pledge to follow the rules, but if that’s not on the table. Maybe I’ll just stay.”

“If you did that, we’d have to kill the tree to get you out. I don’t think you want that,” Tseng said.

“You really think you could kill the tree without killing me?” Aerith bluffed boldly. “You kill Amie while I’m linked with her, you’d be killing me too. Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of our deals? Pretty sure I’ll never lead you and your corporate overlords to the promised land if I’m dead.”

Frowning with uncharacteristic pique, Tseng stood a fraction straighter. “Aerith, you’d just abandon your mother? Wouldn’t you miss Zack? What about the other Ancients?”

Other Ancients? Aerith could feel Amie shouting at her, broken images, trying to help her navigate the moment and not make things any worse. Had the Turks found Cloud and Rain? Were they already in Shinra custody? Amie didn’t think so. Hopefully, the Turks were bluffing a little too. “I wouldn’t get to see my mom or Zack if you locked me in a Shinra lab. And I have no idea what you mean by other Ancients. To the best of my knowledge, there aren’t any other Ancients.”

“Oh Aerith, you aren’t a good liar.” Tseng took a step forward, not touching the tree but close enough that Amie’s roots writhed at his proximity. “Come down or we will have to come get you.”

* * *

Resting the stock of an old, but well maintained rifle on his shoulder. Cloud sighted the target they’d set up about fifty meters away. On exhale, between breaths he took aim and squeezed the trigger, one, two, three, in easy rhythm. Unlike before his vision changed, he wasn’t aiming alone. The mountain guided him, whispering truths about wind and magnetism. He adjusted his aim subtly without having to think deeply about it. Cloud dropped the rifle down and sucked in a breath, sort of shocked at the neat equilateral triangle of holes in the center of the target. He had never been a bad shot, but that was absolutely effortless.

Claudia clapped her hands and stepped closer. “Just like I taught you. We’ll check the target, but you won that round, kid.” They’d been shooting all morning at different angles and distances, and if Cloud had dominated the last round, Claudia had won all the earlier contests. 

“I didn’t win,” Cloud said. Claudia frowned quizzically, and it was glorious to actually see her expression clearly. He hadn’t yet gotten over the novelty of seeing relatively normally again. His ma hadn’t lost her glow but it was an accent point, not an overbearing obliteration of everything around it. “The mountain helped, so I cheated.”

“Did it now? You better cheat every time you think about aiming a weapon if it makes your shot go where you mean it to. This isn’t a board game, you hear me?” Claudia pushed the gun’s safety on and took it away from Cloud. “Grab the target and meet me at the house. I know we need to talk.” Cloud had proven a point today about his recovery and they all knew it.

Silent and stealthy, Rain sprang out of his hiding place in the trees and was waiting for Cloud at the hastily prepared target, a potato sack stuffed with leaves and wearing an old red shirt. 

“Is it like that for you? Does the planet help you aim your spear?” It wasn’t the first time, Cloud had broken the silence between them when his curiosity got the best of him, and Rain didn’t make a fuss.

“No, the planet isn’t able to help me with things like that. How we hear the planet is a little different for each Cetra. I hear the planet in a broader, vaguer sense. She isn’t often able to get a coherent thought through my thick skull.” Rain grabbed the target and they walked back toward the cabin. 

“You’ve said that a lot, that you’re not a good listener, that you don’t hear well. Have you always had that problem or is it an age thing?” Cloud asked.

“Always been a little hard of hearing,” Rain said. “It’s how I was designed. The planet needed a crop of Lightning that wouldn’t be easily infected by Pandemonium. Turns out, sensitivity to the planet is compromised by the walls that make me resistant to infection. My brothers never could hear as well as the other Cetra either.”

“You were designed, planned, born with a purpose. You said I’m a Lightning too. Does that mean the planet designed me for a purpose? Because if she did, the mountain hasn’t let on.” 

Rain trudged forward, several steps before answering haltingly. “I don’t think you should necessarily go looking for your purpose in the planet. You’re my son, but you’re also human.” Rain couldn’t help thinking of his brothers, so young and sure of their role in life, right up until the end. The planet had not been kind to her Lightning, burning through them like valueless fodder in war and then urging them to die once she was done using them. “I haven’t turned to the planet in years and years looking for my purpose. When she withdrew her hand from my brothers, they died. I was too stubborn for that. Gave myself a mission, protect the Cetra until the end. It got me this far.” 

“I was going to be a SOLDIER,” Cloud said. “When you did what you did, it was right before I was scheduled to take the exam to qualify.”

Rain literally shuddered. “If you never forgive me for my choices, I’ll be thankful that you’re not a SOLDIER to the day I die.”

After seeing a shadow of what gave SOLDIERs their power, Cloud was pretty glad he’d never actually made it in either. 

Claudia was waiting for them with a steaming cup of the dreaded, bitter brain-tea. There was no point in arguing about drinking it, so Cloud quietly made himself chug it. Claudia set the cell phone on the kitchen table and crossed her arms. “Let’s discuss this. Aerith hasn’t called or visited in weeks. Zack has called three dozen times asking if we’ve heard from her. He wouldn’t dream of asking for help, not if it would put us in danger. Am I wrong?” Claudia asked.

Shaking his head, Cloud thumbed through the phone’s messages. “He wouldn’t ask, but he doesn’t know how recovered I am either. Me and Rain can get to Mideel fast. We can go to the big tree and look for her. If she isn’t there, we can tell Zack what we find. She said she was headed to the tree. The tree kept me all rolled up in its roots for months. She may literally be there.” Cloud didn’t add the niggling sense he got from the planet just thinking about Aerith. She was alive and the planet expected him and his father to keep her that way. 

“I could go alone. You haven’t had a seizure here. You don’t need me running backup seizure patrol anymore,” Rain proposed. “You’re recovered, but we don’t know how you’ll handle a place as loud as Mideel.”

Cloud shook his head. “No, I may not know what I’m doing with my life from here on, but I’m not hiding here when Aerith is missing and Zack needs our help. I’m going.”

His ma wanted to argue. He could see it on her face, the same tightness that had locked her smile when he told her he was leaving for Midgar, but just like last time, she nodded to him. “Okay, you’ll take the rifle. Let me get the extra ammunition.”


	17. High Risk, High Reward

_Rain wasn’t educated in biology or gifted in fertility magics, but it was obvious that the dwindling population of Cetra was heading to a crisis. You’d have to be stupid not to see it. His little friend Daisy had crystallized the crisis for him. As a child she had stuck with him and the chocobos, visiting daily, always helping._

_Not the future healer he had predicted from her aura as a small child, Daisy had matured into a fertility speciality, green dominating the orange in her aura. She had bred more unique color types among the chocobos in her few years helping than he had managed in decades. Instinctively she could predict which birds to combine for the best outcomes. He had all but handed the breeding program over to her, keeping up his notebooks only for the day when he lost her help and had to decide what to breed with who on his own again._

_Trying to breed a black chocobo was the only time Rain ever saw a match fail for Daisy. She hesitated for days, explaining the situation was a high risk, high reward pairing. In the end she’d rolled the dice, but the chick had been born too small and albino with twisted legs that it would never stand on. Daisy was just a kid, gangly and awkward, but she refused to share the responsibility of that failure with anyone. Daisy held the bird and wept, not letting Rain put it down. With relentless, careful nursing, she kept the little bird alive for almost ten days. When they buried it, she had vowed never to take those kinds of risks again._

_Over the years she sprang up, leaving her gangly adolescence behind, growing into a lovely young girl, taller than average and strong from her daily riding. Once old enough to find a mate and settle down, Daisy had refused to entertain the only three young Cetra of appropriate age. As the population got smaller the bloodlines got closer and the Cetra were weaker for the inbreeding._

_Daisy’s instincts were too strong and she couldn’t just hold her nose and pick one. The boys were her cousins, too close for comfort and she spent her days hiding from them rather than be courted._

_Rain helped her hide, loaning her a chocobo whenever she needed space. He showed her where the closest human settlements were if she wanted to disappear for a while or even forever. The way he saw it, he didn’t owe greater loyalty to any one Cetra, and he liked Daisy. So when her would-be mates came around, he never had a chocobo to spare or an idea where the object of their affection might have vanished to._

_You didn’t have to be a born healer or fertility specialist to pick up a few vital skills, and when Daisy’s aura changed, bubbling with new life, Rain was unexpectedly sad that she’d finally given in to the inevitable and chosen a cousin to have children with. He stopped her from heading to her favorite mount. “You can’t ride in your condition. Pregnancy changes your center of gravity, and if you fall, they’ll blame the bird.”_

_Daisy spun around, eyes wide. “You can tell already? My dad hasn’t even noticed.”_

_“You think your dad hasn’t noticed? Maybe he’s waiting for you to tell him about it?” Rain shrugged. “So who won out? Not Dill? Was it Fort? Just please say it wasn’t Bloo.”_

_“Look, for the record, Dill and Fort are in a relationship with each other. They want to do their part and try to father a kid, but they don’t want or need me as a mate. Bloo, the only heterosexual Cetra within fifteen years of my age, has the mental acuity of a boiled turnip. Of course I’m not having his kid.”_

_Rain frowned. “So you went with one of the old bachelors?”_

_“Not exactly.” Daisy started pacing the fence line, agitated. “I’ve been thinking about this problem for years. Our population is too small. We’re going to die out and soon. Do you even know how many miscarriages my mom had before she carried me to term—twelve and five more after trying to have another. My father made her stop when the last failure almost killed her. Me trying to have my cousin’s children isn’t how we save ourselves.”_

_The inevitability of the Cetra’s end had been a preordained certainty in his life for so long, that Rain was frankly shocked at Daisy’s impassioned defiance of the future. No one had been willing to fight the problem five hundred years ago when there were still thousands of Cetra around. She wanted to fight the good fight now that there were a bit over eight hundred left. “What is going to save us?”_

_“Humanity,” Daisy answered quickly. “And don’t you look at me like I just blasphemed. I know you like humans. I’ve seen how you treat them. We have a common ancestor, humans and Cetra. Our races diverged, but not so much that we can’t interbreed.”_

_Rain sighed and shook his head. “It’s just a different way to go extinct. We’ll disappear into humanity, whatever makes us Cetra diluted completely away in a few generations, or we let the inbreeding take its course until there aren’t any more children born. You’re choosing a different ending, but it’s still an ending.”_

_“It’s not,” Daisy said. “I need your help, Rain. Can you get me to the sacred tree, to Viento? You still visit her, right?”_

_“The sacred tree is pretty cranky these days. She might just eat you. You are technically carrying around a human’s baby,” Rain warned. “You sure you don’t want to go talk to your dad?”_

_“I’ll risk it.” Radiating brave, hopeful idealism, Daisy could have asked him to walk through fire, Rain would have done it for her._

_“Okay, I’ll take you.”  
_

* * *

Following his father through the Nibel forest, Cloud tried not to dwell on déjà vu and how their last expedition went. At least this time he had a weapon and could maybe defend himself against any random plot twists. Rain paused next to a subtle shimmer in the air. “You see it?” he asked. “Get a feel for it before we pass through.”

Narrow and indistinct, the shortcut looked less like a door, than a thin, insubstantial string. Cloud ran his hand through the area and gooseflesh appeared all over him. “It feels alive. What’s the science? How does it work?”

“How does a human’s car work? Turn the key, push the pedals, twist the wheel and you get where you’re going. Just because I can drive a shortcut, doesn’t mean I understand them. It’s Amie’s magic. The wind Cetra understood it best. Ask Amie if you really want to know more.” Rain gestured to the shimmer. “Do you want to learn how to ride, or not? I can just pull you through if you want.”

“No, I want to learn. How do I turn it on?” Cloud asked.

“Try to feel it out for yourself. You should be able to hear her. It’s an extension of the sacred tree.” 

Cloud frowned at Rain and circled the shortcut. Why couldn’t the man just clearly and concisely explain something to him for once? It was apparently the Cetra way to be mysterious and inscrutable. Neither the planet or Amie knew how to explain things properly either. They showed without words and Cloud was just starting to figure out how to properly interpret them. 

It was easier if he didn’t think too hard about it, oddly enough. If he let himself go into autopilot, let his subconscious brain drive, then the answers came to him in efficient flows. He let his mind wander as he circled and in short order he knew what he needed to do. Cloud reached out and gripped the shortcut. It felt comfortable in his hand, warm and supple with a steady, reassuring heartbeat. He could feel the path’s two anchors and pulled firmly toward the more distant place. In a single step he moved between and emerged into the far warmer afternoon of Mideel’s conifer forest. 

Cloud had seen this forest with human eyes, a quietly beautiful place. As solemn as any cathedral, towering redwoods stood guard around the Cetra’s sacred tree. With his new eyes and ears, it felt like he’d dropped into a war zone. The lifestream flowed so close to the surface, that it rushed and pounded like a persistent surf against the rocks. Life and light curled and pulsed up the trees, worming into his head, and Cloud dropped to a knee trying not to vomit. The cacophony of his first days in Nibelheim were nothing to this. 

Rain arrived quickly, a familiar glow amongst the madness and Cloud bit his cheek hard trying to get a handle on himself. If he had a seizure or failed to adapt, his father would put him to sleep and punt him home. 

“You’re not ready for this. Just go back Cloud. I’ll look for Aerith. Let me help you.” Rain offered his hand.

Cloud glared at that hand and shook his head. “Give me a second. I’m fine.”

Rain dropped his hand and hesitated, then crouched closer and extended his hand again, a silent offer that Cloud understood the second time. Aerith had taught him how comforting and helpful the touch of another Cetra could be, but Cloud had avoided asking his father for that form of support up to now. He closed his eyes against a new wave of nausea and roughly grabbed his father’s hand

A few measured breaths and Cloud felt easier, the pain in his head fading with the nausea. Though he didn’t think he’d ever find Mideel a relaxing location, in a few minutes he was back on his feet and even managed to let this father’s hand go. “Told you I was okay.”

Rain smiled thinly. “Sure you are. You aren’t seizing and you’re on you’re feet, so I won’t try to make you retreat. But for the record, you’re white as a ghost and I know you’re in pain.”

“It’s manageable. I mean, it’s loud but not actually terrible.” Cloud straightened determinedly. “It would have been nice if you’d explained how to use the shortcut to me instead of making me feel it out. I might have been more on guard when I passed through if I wasn’t feeling my way. Everything between us doesn’t have to be a mysterious puzzle.”

“I wasn’t trying to be difficult or mysterious. Some things don’t lend themselves to words. I could have told you to grab on and pull yourself through, but would you have understood?” Rain asked. “Sometimes the words make learning harder.”

Cloud sighed. “I don’t know if I’d have understood, but I’d like you to try using your words the next time I ask a question or for some instructions. Please?” 

“Fine, words it is,” Rain agreed. He gestured around but didn’t ask Cloud what he saw or felt in the kaleidoscope of color and sound. He tried to explain what he was seeing in his own words like his son asked. “Amie is agitated. Can you feel that over everything else? It feels jagged and green to me. She usually feels mostly green, but jagged is, not normal. I don’t know how to explain it.”

“No, I get it. It feels stormy. I can almost taste ozone.” Cloud started walking cautiously but briskly forward, squinting and trying to understand what he was seeing and hearing. “I don’t know what normal feels like here,” he said uncertainly. “Aerith is here though.” Cloud gestured forward vaguely. “I mean that’s Aerith right?”

“We’ll see. I don’t feel or see Aerith yet. Lead the way,” Rain encouraged. 

When they emerged into Amie’s clearing, they found the tree actively twisting and writhing. Aerith perched amongst the roots, standing steady with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face. She spotted the two of them and raised a hand in greeting. “Get up here! I need backup,” Aerith called. 

Her voice and aura was unmistakable and now Cloud had a face to go with it. She was lovely. Rain had half-scaled the roots before Cloud started moving. The tree was glowing so intensely he had to fight to keep looking, but Aerith needed them and he wasn’t going to turn back just because it hurt a little.

“Are we backup against the tree? Are they fighting?” Cloud asked, feeling intensely nervous to the point of vertigo just thinking about climbing this tree a second time. The last time he had been here, he had no idea about the colorful world hiding under the stale surface. He had thought he was humoring his mentally unstable, but very human father. Cloud closed his eyes for a long few seconds and took steadying breaths. He clenched his weapon and tried to focus on now and Aerith.

“If the tree wanted to hurt or eat her, Aerith wouldn’t be standing there. She’d be half-digested already.” Rain cast an appraising glance at Cloud and paused his climb. “You don’t have to come up if you don’t want. I’ll help her.”

Cloud made himself open his eyes and stubbornly kicked his boots off. “I’m coming. You don’t have to baby me. I can handle this.” Wrapping a hand around one of Amie’s roots, his whole body clenched and for a moment Cloud thought he might finally have one of the seizures everyone had been so worried about. But Amie immediately went quieter and he relaxed into what he could only describe as wordless, colorful cooing from the tree.

“Are you okay?” Rain had already started to climb back to him. “You shouldn’t have come. You’re not recovered enough for this place.”

Resolutely, Cloud put one hand over the other and climbed forward, letting the waves of color and sound roll over him. “I’m fine. The tree is just a lot.”

“She’s happy you’re doing well,” Rain said, waiting for Cloud to catch up to him. “She’s quieter than I’ve ever heard her, practically whispering. She doesn’t want to hurt you.”

“I get that, sort of. Still feels loud.” Once they were at the top of the root bed and walking, not climbing, Aerith was at their side. She hesitated for a moment then hugged Cloud. The relief of contact with another Cetra was still absolutely soothing, and he was intensely relieved that Aerith took his hand, rather than just letting him go at the end of the hug. 

Rain’s expression was calm, emotionless. His father put on that face a lot, a fake mask, protection that most people would never see through. Of course, Rain and his ritual had made sure Cloud wasn’t going to be easily fooled by appearances anymore. He could see the lie, a complex, twisting twirl of his father’s aura that he might understand better if he’d been seeing such things for longer than a handful of weeks. 

Jealously, maybe?

Cloud couldn’t be sure.

“I can’t believe you’re both here. Let me guess, you’re looking for me?” Aerith looked harried and apologetic. “I messed up, guys. I came to talk to our tree friend, and I thought she understood that it needed to be a quick talk.”

Rain smirked. “Sometimes I forget how young you both are. It’s never a good idea to talk with Amie alone if you have a schedule to keep. Time is a concept she doesn’t perceive the same way we do.”

“Oh, I’m clear on that now,” Aerith said. “Problem is, the Turks noticed my absence. Either Zack missed some cameras or they put in new ones because they apparently had some incriminating footage. The Turks implied they knew about you two. They threatened to lock me in a Shinra lab, and then Amie lost her cool.”

“She ate them?” Cloud asked, trying to make sense of the jumble he was getting from the tree. 

“I made her stop short of actually eating them, but she’s holding them in stasis, and I can’t convince her to let them out so I can negotiate. I’m pretty sure if I leave, she’s going to forget our truce and just eat all of them for my own good. There are four relatively innocent infantrymen in this mess. We can’t just let the tree eat them all.” Aerith threw her free hand up in exasperation. “Oh, and my phone battery is dead. So there’s that.”

“Why are they persecuting you? I don’t understand what Shinra has against Cetra?” Cloud asked. “I mean, it’s not like Shinra is some storybook villain here. They’re an electric power company. I worked for them. Zack still does.”

Aerith looked uncomfortable, but it was Rain that answered him. “Shinra is not a villain. It’s a corporate and political entity, a human creation that exists in a miasma of Machiavellian logic that justifies evil when done to achieve a stated goal. You’ve seen what they’re injecting into their SOLDIERs. You’ve seen what the Nibelheim reactor is doing to that mountain. Would you argue that those things aren’t evil?” Rain shrugged. “I’m sure if you asked the Turks, they have some very sincere motivation for taking Aerith’s freedom. It doesn’t mean she should go with them, unless it’s what she wants. What do you want, Aerith? What are you negotiating for? What do they actually want from you?”

She squeezed Cloud’s hand before letting go and Aerith shrugged. “The party line is that they want a Cetra to lead them to the promised land where they’ll find all the mako a human could ever use. Personally, I just want to live in my home peacefully.”

Rain laughed. “They really want to go to the promised land? Has anyone explained that the promised land is the afterlife? You should just let the tree eat them. Dying is the only way they’re getting what they claim to want. Besides that, you’re better off far away from Midgar. That city is diseased.”

“I said it was the party line. In reality, there are a few Shinra scientists who are very interested in Cetra biology and they’d like a willing subject for their experiments. Unwilling Cetra have a very short lifespan.” Aerith frowned. “I’d also appreciate you not calling my home diseased. You bandy that word around a lot. Well you hurt Zack’s feelings when you called him diseased.” 

“Have I lied to you once? I call it like I see it. Your boyfriend is riddled with plague. Your home town is a festering tumor, doing it’s best to kill the planet.” Rain crossed his arms over his chest. “I think you should let the tree have her meal and run away from that terrible city you call a home. It’s no place for a Cetra. Hell, it’s no place for a human.”

Aerith didn’t often get angry. It just wasn’t how she dealt with her problems, but she was in an obscene amount of trouble, she could not see a way home, and she’d not learned anything to help Zack or anyone else. The mess she’d created was for nothing. Goddess, Aerith just wanted to wipe the smug smile off Rain’s face. He didn’t know everything. She knew more about him than he realized after her long talk with the tree. “Maybe if you hadn’t abdicated your responsibilities as a Lightning, Pandemonium would still be contained where it belongs and not dangerously close to waking up and drifting into the lifestream. Maybe if you had tried to help humanity, they wouldn’t have made so many mistakes?”

“You have no idea about my responsibilities as a Lightning,” Rain said, his voice calmly dispassionate but his aura was crackling. “You’re a child. You spent a few days talking to Amie and now you think you’ve figured it all out? Okay, how do you propose we contain Pandemonium? Thousands of Cetra united to seal it the first time and half of them cast until their lives expired in the effort. Did Amie teach you the spell? Cast it little girl and give it everything you have. It won’t seal Pandemonium because there aren’t enough of us left.”

Aerith realized she was emotional and not being completely rational, but Rain thought he understood the situation. All he saw in Zack was a plague carrier. All he saw in Midgar was a malignancy. Millions of innocent people lived in Midgar; children lived there. Zack didn’t deserve to be corrupted and lost. He deserved a future in life and later in the lifestream. The people of Midgar deserved a future too. Aerith wanted nothing more than to save everyone, but Amie hadn’t known a way, and Rain didn’t even care enough to try. “Maybe the last Lightning shouldn’t have let Shinra dig Pandemonium up and experiment with it. They had no idea what they found. They can’t see and you didn’t even try to help them understand. Don’t you care? You’ll die too if the planet can’t fight the parasite off this time. I’ll die. Cloud will die. Everything will die.” 

“I spent centuries with my fellow Cetra trying to teach care and conservation to humanity. Humanity didn’t listen. Why would I keep wasting my time and theirs?” Rain asked, genuinely puzzled. “As for Pandemonium, I played my role. Now the planet will have a new plan. She always has a plan.” Cocking his head to the side Rain smiled knowingly. “You really want to negotiate with the Turks for a chance to stay in Midgar just a little longer? Be honest with me. Why is it so important that you go back there?

She could have explained about her mother or her church or the sector five orphans, a million things and people that she loved in Midgar, but Rain was right, there had always been more important reasons to stay. “Unlike some people who have turned their back on her, I stayed for the planet. I stayed so that I’d be there when her plan came to life and I was needed. The planet is so much harder to understand than your tree, but she told me to stay put, that I was needed right were I was.”

“That, I actually believe. You’ve got a role to play. Does she have a plan for me? For my son? What did Amie show you?”

“Of course the planet has a plan, but I’ve not put the pieces together. I came to find a cure for the SOLDIERs. I didn’t ask for the planet’s plan.”

Early on in Aerith and Rain’s fight, Cloud drifted back a step or two. This place was already overwhelming. Their emotional exchange had his head aching more harshly. Amie continued to stroke him with her soft colors and gentle purrs. The tree was muffling the other relentlessly harsh sounds of Mideel. She was filtering away Aerith and Rain’s voices. Cloud crouched down, certain that the tree was trying to talk to him, to share something important. While Aerith and Rain bickered, Cloud was drawn into a conversation about his improbable birth and the role the planet meant to be his.

* * *

The fifth time Zack finished his mission and tried to return to Midgar only to be delivered a new dispensation and ordered elsewhere, he realized something was awry. When he was camping on an unnamed island in the North Sea hunting a fiend and Aerith stopped answering his texts, he got angry. The way he saw it, if the mission desk couldn’t reach him to reassign him, he could return to Midgar and it wouldn’t be insubordination or desertion or anything else that would get him court marshaled.

Ten days later, Zack took a selfie with the smoldering remains of the sea serpent he had been dispatched to kill. He emailed it to the mission desk and promptly popped the battery out of his PHS. A local fishing vessel had already agreed to provide him passage back to the mainland, and Zack wanted to be off the island before a transport could arrive with new orders to some other desolate corner of the globe.

Traveling by his own devices it took almost two weeks to make it back to Midgar, but Zack didn’t get through the gate. A transport met him in the wasteland, and none other than Sephiroth stepped out. Zack sucked a deep breath and shook his head. “Sir, if you’re here to give me a mission and turn me away from Midgar, I’m going to have to protest. I’ve not had a break in weeks. This isn’t protocol. I have rights.”

“If you return to Midgar, you’ll be arrested for treason, immediately. I’ve successfully kept you away to stop things from progressing while the situation was resolved. I owed you that much for the help you’ve given me this year with my friends.” Sephiroth’s mouth turned up a fraction of a millimeter. “Your associate, Kunsel came to me with the problem. He seemed desperate to protect you. You inspire loyalty in your subordinates. It’s a good characteristic for a leader.”

Zack didn’t correct Sephiroth that Kunsel was his friend, not just a subordinate. His friend wouldn’t appreciate the label being bandied around with someone as important as Sephiroth. The man worked so hard to be invisible. That he’d gone to the general for help at all, he must have been truly panicked. “Treason? In what universe have I committed treason?”

“If I thought you were actually a member of Avalanche or a Wutai spy, we wouldn’t be discussing the situation politely. Join me and we can talk while we ride. I’ve got a mission to Nibelheim. The reactor has been infested with monsters. You’re going to assist me instead of going to Midgar and being arrested. We will figure this out Zachary, but I need to understand what’s happening first.”


	18. Rebel With a Cause

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SIGNIFICANT graphic violence in the flashback of this chapter. 
> 
> Edited the last chapter a skosh. Added a line that didn’t fit in this chapter but needed to be said for the correct flow. It is not necessary to reread the chapter. 
> 
> Two weeks between chapters! Ack! I’ll try to do better but holidays and family and travel, no promises.

_Babies were helpless, fragile things and Rain would rather face a dozen angry dragons than be responsible for one, but Daisy had asked him to help and had thrust her drooling bundle of terror into his arms before abandoning them both to prepare for her newly minted ritual. Caring for children was not in a Lightning’s job description, but he’d been raising baby chocobos for years. A baby Cetra couldn’t be much more of a challenge, right?_

_He found a nice clean cedar box and blanket to make into a temporary bed, and settled the little one in for a rest. Daisy’s child immediately started to scream. Rain tried food, changed diapers, everything he could think of, but she only settled when being held. With a resigned sigh, Rain rigged a sling so that he could carry the baby without occupying his hands and set out to start his daily chores._

_It took a few days, but Rain got the hang of caring for the baby. The main trick was that she refused to be out of physical contact so he minimized the time that she wasn’t in his arms, never setting her down for more than a few minutes. Wherever his daily tasks took him, astride a chocobo or rooting out an infestation of dire rats in the barn, the angel came with. She never showed fear, happily cooing her way through the tasks._

_Three days into his babysitting endeavor six of the baby chocobos started sniffling and stopped eating. Instinctively knowing it wouldn’t fix the problem, Rain cast a trial of cure, restore and esuna anyway before sending for help. The wrong strain of avian influenza could wipe out an entire generation of birds so Rain couldn’t just wait and see. Of course, the primary healer for their sect of Cetra happened to be grandfather to the nameless little cherub snuggled into his chest._

_Daisy hadn’t explicitly said why her child lacked a name, but he suspected there was a conflict in her family holding up the process. Many of the individual families had traditions for naming and if he remembered correctly, Daisy’s girl should have been named by her grandfather. Regardless of the family politics, Daisy wouldn’t want anything to happen to the birds, Rain reasoned, so he sent for the healer._

_Dermot was taller than average, physically strong and still handsome though his hair was graying. Rain was immediately impressed by the resemblance between father and daughter. Daisy wasn’t a healer in her aura, but she was her father’s daughter in almost every other way. On arrival the healer stared for a few extra seconds at the child slung across Rain’s chest before ducking into the barn to evaluate the chicks._

_“Good news, it’s not influenza,” Dermot said after a quick evaluation. “I’ll mix up a potion but it will take at least a day. Isolate the infected if you can.”_

_“I can build something temporary for an isolation ward.”_

_“Or I could send a builder. We still have a few builders. It would be good to have something more sturdy for backup, don’t you think?” Dermot asked._

_The baby let out a childish happy shriek before Rain could answer and Dermot laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes, little one. Is there a reason my daughter isn’t caring for her child?”_

_“She’s running an errand,” Rain answered vaguely. Daisy hadn’t told anyone except Rain about her plans, the ritual she had been perfecting day and night with Amie’s help, and he had no intention of breaking her confidence._

_“Can I hold her?” Dermot asked._

_Daisy hadn’t told him not to allow her family near the baby, so Rain only hesitated a moment before shifting the babe to her grandfather. “She’s a brave one. Helped me clean out a nest of dire rats yesterday.”_

_Judging by the severe look Dermot shot him, fighting dire rats was not an appropriate activity for a baby and her sitter. “Has Daisy accepted her name?”_

_“No name yet,” Rain said. “You’ve selected one?”_

_“Meg,” Dermot said, rocking the child with as much care and love as any grandfather. “Daisy didn’t accept the name and I refused to change it. I thought she might have named her against tradition or maybe accepted my choice. It’s not right to leave a babe nameless so long.”_

_“The baby doesn’t know the difference yet,” Rain said with a shrug. “Meg isn’t a traditional name. It’s a human name.”_

_“The little one is blind and very nearly deaf, more human than Cetra. Her future is with the humans. A traditional Cetra name would hinder that, which I tried to explain to Daisy, but she wouldn’t hear it.” With visible reluctance Dermot handed the baby back to Rain. “I don’t think my girl did the wrong thing, but there are consequences to the choice she made. You’ve been her friend for a long time. I hope you’ll keep looking out for her and my granddaughter now too. Daisy is young and angry and I’m the enemy right now.”_

_“I watch out for all the Cetra,” Rain said._

_“You don’t love all the Cetra,” Dermot said, simply. “I’m not angry or warning you away. You’ve never overstepped, never taken advantage of her and it wouldn’t have taken much when she was a few years younger. She loves you too.”_

_Love? Rain was too flustered at the statement, to even respond before Dermot was gone. He loved Daisy and her little nameless babe, but not romantically. He was a Lightning, such attachments were beyond forbidden. They were unthinkable._

* * *

_It had been nearly two weeks and he was running low on supplies when Daisy finally returned. She was thinner with dark circles under her eyes. Her energy was frenetic and Rain was genuinely worried for the first time since Daisy turned up pregnant and asking for help. “I cracked it, Rain. The ritual. It’s ready.”_

_“Okay, the little one is doing well. She’s missed her mom.” Rain did not offer to hand the child off. “You look like you need to rest before we talk any rituals. I’ll make you a meal and you can explain this ritual to me. What do you say?”_

_“I’m not tired.”_

_Rain held a hand up, stopping further argument. “You’re truly exhausted if you think you can lie to me. I’m hard of hearing but I see just fine. Sit and rest. I’ll get food.”_

_Once he got her eating, Daisy devoured an entire bowl of dumplings and a roasted hen. Rain ate his meal and gave the little one her bottle of goat’s milk before Daisy was ready to talk. She reached out for her child and Rain handed the baby over._

_“Let’s hear it then. Tell me about your ritual.”_

_Rocking her baby and humming, Rain could practically see the tension bleeding out of his friend. “There isn’t so much of a difference between being human and a Cetra. There is a complex book in each of us that dictates what we are. Your book gives you blue eyes and blond hair. I lets you see my lies, even when I’m not meaning to lie. Humans stopped using chapters of their book and wrote new chapters that we don’t have. It’s what makes them humans.”_

_“Evolution, Ged taught us about how all creatures, large and small change over time. A human is a Cetra, minus a few distinct traits.” Rain gestured for Daisy to continue._

_“With my ritual, I can turn them back on. The ritual reopens the chapters. It won’t close the chapters that humans have added over time. My girl will still be partly human, but she’ll be fully Cetra too, and that’s what I want for her.” Daisy blinked back tears and smiled broadly. “Viento is the key. She’s eaten a lot of humans and Cetra. She can tell exactly what needs to be activated. The sacred tree is going to help. You’ll come and be with us, won’t you?”_

_“Are there any risks?” Rain asked._

_Daisy didn’t answer him right away. “It’s new, never been done before. Of course there’s risk, but the risk is small, and the reward is everything.”_

_Any risk seemed too high for the little girl he had been caring for, but Rain had no vote in this decision. “She is a brave little one, like her mother. I trust you, Daisy. Of course I’ll come.”_

_It was one thing to agree to come and watch the ritual. It was quite another to listen as the helpless baby screamed. Amie’s roots twined around her tiny limbs, penetrating her soft flesh. With more composure than Rain would have thought possible, Daisy selected a small silver spear from a bundle of oversized needles. She carefully moved the tip until the position was exactly right and then she shoved it into her child._

_The crying stopped immediately._

_Rain was striding forward without thinking, only to have Amie restrain him, her roots twining him aggressively in place. “She’s dying,” he shouted, horrified._

_Daisy spared him a brief, focused look. “Let me work. We have her.” She raised her hands, like a supplicant praying. “Oh great goddess tree, hear me and take my baby’s pain.”_

_Rain watched as Daisy called lightning down, filling the air with the smell of ozone and burning flesh. As much as he wanted to look away, he watched the ravaged child as it was pulled down into Amie’s roots, another tiny meal for the carnivorous tree._

_“Don’t look at me like that,” Daisy said. “I know you’re half-deaf but listen. Amie has her. She isn’t dead.”_

_How could she not be dead? Rain realized he was crying, and he just wanted to go back in time, to argue against this insanity. Gods, what had they done? For a moment of weakness, he just wanted to follow the babe down into the roots, to die like his brothers had and return to the promised land. But he couldn’t run away, not when Daisy hadn’t even realized what she’d done._

_The girl who had mourned a poorly bred chocobo, would need help to survive this terrible misstep. He wouldn’t leave her to face it alone._

_The tree shifted, releasing him so that he could make his way to her side. Daisy smiled serenely at him and took his hand. “Don’t be sad, Rain. She’ll be back in a few minutes. Rebirth isn’t instantaneous.”_

_New mothers sometimes experienced a type of reckless mental derangement when they were more likely to hurt themselves and their children. He wasn’t a healer but he had heard of such cases. Daisy hadn’t been herself when she performed the ill-fated ritual, he reasoned. He would have to get her to her father; Dermot would know how to help her._

_The tree shifted and Rain was forced to reevaluate the situation again. The babe, kicking and crying loudly was back in her mother’s arms, all her grave wounds healed as though they’d never been. Her aura had amped up from the muted oranges of a half-Cetra who was mostly human, to perfectly normal Cetra levels. “I don’t believe it.”_

_“Take her?” Daisy’s serene certainty had shattered and she was shaking. Once the baby was in Rain’s arms she collapsed to her knees sobbing. “Gods, that was terrifying.”_

_Rain crouched by his sobbing friend’s side, cradling her still nameless babe close. “It was horrifying, but you were right. You and the sacred tree did it. You know, it’s probably for the best you didn’t walk me through the actual steps of the ritual ahead of time. I wouldn’t have let you do it.” With the baby burbling happily against his chest, Rain was crying again too. He had never been more relieved in his life._

_“Will you name her?” Daisy asked. “I want her name to come from you.”_

_He wasn’t family by any of the traditional definitions, but Rain didn’t even think to protest the request. He’d given the babe a name in his head days ago when he realized that the tiny girl seemed to love the chocobos as much as her mother ever had._

_“Birdie.”_

* * *

They were both first class SOLDIERs and they’d been working together for years, but Zack never quite felt on a comfortable level with Sephiroth. He wasn’t a moony eyed third anymore, but the general still felt slightly more than human. Since he was fresh out of Gongaga, Zack employed a simple strategy for times that he felt out of his depth, fake it until you make it. That strategy had gotten him through his cadet year and all the way to first class SOLDIER. So he threw on an easy smile and pretended not to feel awed in the general’s presence.

“So, tell me about this treason charge. What do they say I’ve done?” Zack asked.

“The charges are sealed, but I’ve managed to get a few details. You have apparently absconded with a company asset. You’ve also been conspiring with a rogue element.” Sephiroth crossed his arms and waited for Zack to respond.

“Right, so assuming this is sort of based in fact, the company asset is probably my girlfriend, and I didn’t _abscond_ with her, recently anyway. The one time I did _abscond_ with her, I brought her right back before anyone missed her. My girlfriend _absconded_ with herself rather recently and isn’t answering her phone.” Zack gestured dramatically with his phone.

Sephiroth arched a single eyebrow. “And the conspiracy?”

“That’s harder to nail down.” Zack frowned, fairly certain that his association with the three Cetra left in the world and their cranky mutant tree was the reference point, but it would be hard to explain that situation without telling a whole pile of secrets that weren’t his to spill. “My girlfriend is a member of a very small racial ethnic group and maybe that group is the rogue faction? They’re a really small group though. I don’t know.”

“What about your friend, the infantryman that died, except not really since he’s all over some video that has half the science department in an uproar?” Sephiroth asked. “Truth, Zackary, or I can’t help you.”

Sephiroth knew Cloud was alive? Shinra knew Cloud was alive. “Well fuck, the science department wants to meet my old friend, huh? My old friend isn’t in any condition to meet the science department, just back from the dead and all.”

“Explain,” Sephiroth said, expression firm.

There wasn’t much space in the transport, but Zack stood and started pacing the small aisle, three steps back and forth. If he didn’t trust Sephiroth, what options did he really have? “They’re Ancients. You’ve heard of Ancients? My girlfriend and my friend and his dad are all Ancients, possibly the last three in the world. If Shinra has figured that out, they’re probably upset with me for not filling them in on the situation, but I wasn’t under any orders to do so, sir.”

“Ancients, of course,” Sephiroth said, “That actually makes a great deal of sense. President Shinra and Professor Hojo share an obsession with the Ancients. If I’m understanding the broad strokes, you cost them an Ancient and have been hiding a couple of others? Either man would be happy to destroy you over that kind of transgression. Start at the beginning and explain how exactly we got to this point. You’re dating an Ancient?”

* * *

Aerith could be forgiven for not noticing that Cloud had dropped into conversation mode with the tree. She was flustered and having an argument. When she realized, she moved to disrupt the connection and stop their interaction. The three of them couldn’t afford to waste more time. They needed to decide what to do next, but Rain stopped her.

“Leave him be. He’s a Lightning having his first conversation with Amie. It’s special. You can’t interrupt,” Rain said. 

“We have Turks hostage under our feet and we need a plan,” Aerith all but pleaded. 

Rain smiled, apparently unperturbed. “One step at a time. You don’t want the Turks dead, but we can’t afford to just release them. We could move them off the board temporarily. Amie’s roots stretch literally all over the world. I’ll take them elsewhere, far away. You stick tight with Cloud. I’ll be back as soon as they’re relocated. Agreed?”

Aerith hesitated, shifting from foot to foot. Gods, she wasn’t going home and it was no one’s fault but her own. “Fine, relocate them, and then we’ll figure out our next step.”

He nodded politely as though they’d just decided to have tea, not to sort-of kidnap a small group of very dangerous men.

Oblivious to both of them, Cloud learned more about being a Lightning. Amie spread her roots into his body, suffusing him with the lifestream, strengthening him, not unlike a SOLDIER with their crude injections. She collaborated with him, learning his natural gifts and building a weapon for him alone. 

She let him glimpse the planet’s plan. She showed him humanity as the planet perceived them, low inconsequential things. Like bacteria in a mammal’s gut that had overgrown and begun to damage the greater being, the planet sought to treat them like an infection. Medicine, carefully dosed poison, Pandemonium was both the enemy and a tool to remove unwanted parasites. 

Amie led him backwards; she showed him the planet’s last culling, its rejection of the Cetra. Unlike humanity, they never damaged the planet but they existed in too close proximity to the lifestream, a vulnerability that the planet rejected after facing the calamity from the sky. 

The harsh reality of the planet’s careless genocides left Cloud breathless and broken, but Amie consoled and calmed him. She painted deviations, rebellions against a plan she had tired of following. Amie did not command him. She invited, cajoled, begged him to walk her path to the future. 

Cloud listened and he collaborated. The future could be anything. They could make it anything.

When he woke, Cloud drew a long silver broadsword covered with a series of fine, almost invisible lines.  
Aerith crouched nearby, looking pale and worried. 

“Hey,” Cloud said. “I may have just had a life changing experience.”

“You don’t say.” Aerith winced. “This tree specializes in those. Want to tell me about it?” 

“I do.” Cloud gazed grimly back at her. “Cetra do as the planet says. They take orders. They’re good little pawns. The way I see it, you and I are as human as we are anything. Humans can choose, it’s their specialty. I won’t be a pawn, not for the planet or the Shinra Power Company or anyone.” Cloud grabbed her hand and squeezed. 

“Pawns? You want to rebel against the planet?” Aerith asked, shocked at the idea.

“I do. We can’t let the planet have its way. We’re going to stop Pandemonium and we’re going to help the planet, but we’re not exterminating humanity in the process. Are you with me?” Cloud asked.

The planet wanted to exterminate humanity? Aerith opened her mouth and closed it, visibly digesting what Cloud had just said. “Okay, yeah, vive la revolution. We’re both opposed to genocide. Now what?”

Unknowingly quoting his father, Cloud answered, “One step at a time. First we have to cure the SOLDIERs and anything else Shinra has infected while Pandemonium is still asleep.”

“Great, any idea on how to do that? I spent a very long time looking for answers with the big silly tree and got nowhere,” Aerith said, not a little bitterly.

“The tree, us together—we, had an idea. We’re just two Lightning and a healer, but I think we can cast the spells the Cetra used to bind and seal the plague. The Cetra used themselves like batteries with those castings, spending their life to make it work. The three of us would barely be a drop in the bucket to what’s needed. But Shinra has tanks full of mako, raw lifestream. We just need to figure out how to cast with mako for the battery instead of ourselves.”

“That’s insane, maybe a little brilliant.” Aerith slowly smiled and jerked Cloud into a hug. “I want to try.”

* * *

Claudia spent too much of her life on Nibel mountain waiting. She wished that she could have gone with Cloud and Rain to search for Aerith, but she was only capable for a middle aged mountain woman. She would have slowed them down. 

Instead of sitting and wringing her hands, she worked. She rehabilitated the old homestead, filling the pantry, stocking up on the herbs for Cloud’s medicinal tea. She climbed up on the roof, replacing missing shingles. It had only been two days but she was rapidly running out of chores. The boys needed to hurry up before she lost her mind. 

The knock at the door both startled and excited her. Claudia abandoned the herbs she’d been sorting and threw the door open, ready to hug her Cloud and dump a cup of tea down his throat. It wasn’t her Cloud and his father on her stoop though. “Zack, young man, it’s very good to see you.”

“Ms. Strife,” Zack said with a nervous nod. He stepped to the side and gestured to the very tall, imposing celebrity standing behind him. “I’d like you to meet General Sephiroth. He’s here to check on the reactor, but he’s also here to help with things. You can trust him. Is Rain here? How’s Spike?”

Aerith’s warnings about Shinra and their unhealthy obsession with Cetra, left Claudia frozen. Had Zack really betrayed them to his employer? “I don’t know what you mean. I’m all alone up here.” She wasn’t even lying. “You’re both welcome to come in. I have tea, no coffee. It isn’t very tasty tea, more health tea.”

“Some water would be absolutely lovely,” Sephiroth said. He had to duck down just a bit on his way in. “You may as well set your mind at ease. Zack hasn’t betrayed your confidence. Shinra discovered your son and his father all on their own. We’re here to make sure they don’t end up in the science department, not to capture them. I have some personal questions for Rain, but that is peripheral to our primary goals.”

Zack had slipped down to the bedroom and already returned. “Are they really not here? Are they with Aerith, maybe? I’ve not been able to reach her. Cloud must be doing better?”

“He’s doing very well Zack, thanks. They left, and I honestly don’t know when they’ll be back. They went looking for Aerith.” Claudia poured three glasses of water and settled them at the rough country table. “Have a seat gentlemen. We can talk if you want.” For once she was glad to have been left waiting. Zack might trust the general, but Claudia would be happy if the man came and went without ever seeing her son.


End file.
